New Roles
by 8Dreamer-By-Day8
Summary: The story revolves around three of my characters when a spell by England goes wrong, dragging the three of them into the fictional world. I am experimenting with fan-fiction for the first time. This is a random story I finished a few weeks ago. A friend convinced me to sign up and try posting it to see what would happen, so I guess you could say I'm doing this on a dare.
1. Chapter 1- Spell Gone Wrong

Sam waltzed in through the front door of the quiet house that afternoon and shut it in an obnoxious fashion, walking swiftly into the whitewashed living room.

"Honey, I'm home!" she called, flinging her bag onto the couch next to Corytha. The blonde looked up and blinked, tucking a piece of her short wavy hair behind her ear. She smiled.

"Hey Sam, how was work?"

"Eh, it was fine," the redhead shrugged, plopping down in the adjacent recliner. "Some dude came in today with neon blue hair. It was actually kinda great."

Corytha laughed a bit and continued to work on her laptop. She was making a new zoo on her Zoo Tycoon game- an endangered animal sanctuary. Getting bored did things to a child. In her case she needed to design something.

"Where's Reagan?"

"In here," came a voice from the kitchen.

"Damn it! I thought I beat you home for once," Sam scowled, glaring over her shoulder.

"Nope~!" her friend sang.

"One of these days, Dutois," Sam called, jabbing a finger towards the ceiling. "Mark my words!"

Within a few minutes a piece of paper was dropped into her lap. Reagan stood there grinning, her sapphire blue eyes unblinking for a moment. Sam raised an eyebrow and picked up the paper to find 'my words' with several strange lines around and inside the lettering.

"The hell is this?"

"I marked 'my words,'" she said simply.

Sam blinked and stared back at her. Suddenly the two of them snorted then started laughing, and if that wasn't bad enough, one of them laughing usually caused the other to start laughing even harder, because they found each other's laughter to be amusing.

Needless to say, in a short amount of time both of them were writhing on the floor and holding their stomachs. Corytha looked at them in mild concern.

"I swear, one day someone is going to confront me about this, and all I'll have to say is that I live with lunatics," she said dully.

They both sat up, wiping tears from their eyes.  
"You know you love us!" Sam laughed, having finally regained her composure.

Corytha laughed quietly then closed the laptop and set it on the table.

"Well neither of you have work for a while now," she said, getting to her feet to stretch. "And it's summer! We should think of some stuff to do."

Reagan got up and grinned, heading over to the desk to grab something from the locked drawer on the bottom.

"Lucky for us, my grandma is awesome," she said, reaching in and pulling out a thick envelope. Sam's eyes widened. "Oh geez, what is that?"  
Reagan held it up with one hand while she held the other behind her back and closed her eyes, smiling.

"This, my friends, is six thousand dollars of emergency funds. That is, my grandma basically left us with enough money to do what we want this summer, provided we're not leaving the state. She said we could use this to go places or go shopping or whatever it is we might need. Of course we can't just blow it all either, so we'll need to think it through."

"Reagan, have I told your grandma how much I love her?" Sam asked, snatching the envelope and practically drooling as she stared at it.

Reagan laughed. "I believe you have, actually."

For the next few hours the girls hung out in Reagan's living room and talked about what they could do over the summer. By the end of it, both Reagan and Sam would be attending the same college, and Corytha would be taking courses online. School had let out a few days ago, and on the last day Sam brought all of her things to move in with her two best friends. They would be living together for at least the next four years and none of them could have hoped for anything better. Thanks to Reagan's grandmother, the house was paid for completely. Corytha had already lived there for a year after some unforeseen circumstances at her old home had left her needing somewhere to stay.

After a while, Corytha made sandwiches for the three of them for dinner, while Reagan's dog Sadie hurried inside to greet everyone for the first time that day. It seemed that the merle australian shepherd had been after rabbits again, judging by the dirt that covered her paws. Once they finished Sam pulled Netflix up on the television and scrolled through her list of favorites until she found 'anime.' She was the biggest anime fan of the group, though her friends often watched it with her too.

"Which one do you guys want to watch?" Sam asked.

"I don't know… geez, you have so many of them," Reagan said, staring dumbly at the screen. Corytha nodded silently in agreement.

"Hmm…" eventually Sam paused on one of the options and grinned, eying her friends repeatedly.

"Oh geez, that one?" Reagan gestured to the one Sam had stopped on.

Hetalia.

The anime was so random that sometimes Reagan didn't know whether to laugh or stare in confusion. Sometimes she did an awkward mixture of both. She did like it, although not nearly as much as Sam seemed to. The redhead would watch it hours on end, often repeating old episodes and finding her favorites before rewatching the whole series again. She had posters and shirts and other objects relating to the show. She'd even called it her 'spirit animal' one time.

For the most part, Cori and Reagan watched shows with her but remained minor fans- Sam was the main fangirl out of them all.

"It's funny, but you just rewatched the whole thing last week, didn't you?" Reagan asked, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

"You can never watch too much!" Sam declared, starting it from the first episode.

Corytha facepalmed and shook her head. "Of course you would say that."

Sam pressed a finger to her friend's lips and shushed her.

"Shhhh. Look at the pretty people."

Corytha exchanged a concerned glance with Reagan before turning their attention to the television.

Eventually they were all sitting together enjoying snacks with Sadie laying in front of them. They'd already progressed halfway through the first chunk of the show, the Axis Powers. Corytha seemed ready to fall asleep while Reagan was forcing herself to stay awake as she peered at the screen. Sam was still wide awake and laughing at the goofy little things that happened here and there. You'd think she'd memorized the entire series at this point, but she always managed to find something new.

"This show is beautiful," she said, wiping a tear from her eye as she calmed down from another laughing fit. "Wouldn't it be great if countries were actually people here?"

Reagan snorted. "If the fate of our country was in the hands of that guy, I think I'd move to Germany."

Sam smirked and turned to her friends as the episodes continued on behind her.

"No but just imagine if you were walking down the street somewhere and suddenly you saw like America in DC or something. I'd probably have a fangirl attack, myself."

"Hey, Sam-"

"But I guess you have a point about the fate of our country at that point…"

"Sam, there's somethi-"

"Better yet, we could move to Switzerland and ignore the rest of the world!"

"GUYS."

Corytha's voice stopped both of them and caused them to look at her in confusion.

"What, Cori? Sheesh," Sam said, rubbing her ear.

"Something is wrong with the tv," the blonde said, pointing at the screen.

All eyes went to the tv. The screen, for some reason, had gone black, save for a white dot glowing in the center. That, and the device was making a strange screeching sound. It was quiet, but it was still fairly annoying. Sam mumbled something under her breath and got to her feet, walking over to investigate.

"This is weird," she said, She pressed the buttons for both changing the channel and turning the television off. She'd even pressed the netflix button multiple times. "Nothing is working."

"The heck? This tv isn't even a year old!" Reagan groaned, getting to her feet now. When Corytha got up to help, the center of the screen appeared to expand, and Sadie had even started to growl at the strange sounds coming from it.

"R-Reagan, I think it's busted," Sam commented as she backed away.

"Sadie, what's wrong?" Corytha asked, trying to hold the dog still. Sadie's growling only increased until she barked at the screen in a defensive manner.

"She never gets like this…" Reagan said, staring at her in shock. "Something isn't right here…"

"I'd get away from the tv, Reagan," Sam advised, watching as the light seemed to be growing and… stretching out from the screen?!

"It's not going to explode-" she started dully before both Corytha and Sam's eyes widened.

"R-Reagan, that light is expanding out of the tv!"

She whipped around only to find the light had taken up nearly all of the screen and was now infiltrating into the room itself. Something stirred around the edges.

"REAGAN, GET BACK!"

Sam and Corytha shot forward to grab her by the arms and pull her away. As they did, a sudden bright flash of light surrounded them. They felt their bodies getting pulled somewhere and blacked out instantly.

* * *

"I can't believe you actually brought them here!"  
"Well none of you were listening to me!"

"You don't just go around kidnapping people to prove a point!"

"Dude, you even brought a dog over!"

"Why is everyone yelling?!"

As the arguing escalated more and more, Reagan stirred from her position. As the feeling began to return to her body, she felt herself lying on a carpeted floor. A pounding headache was making it difficult to want to move, but as it started to fade she hissed and rubbed her head in confusion. _What is going on here?_ She wondered, clenching her eyes shut in an attempt to force away the headache.

Shortly after she felt a wet nose prodding at her face and cringed, opening one sapphire eye to see who it was. Sadie stared back at her, whining a bit in concern.

"Hey, girl," she said weakly, twisting over and petting the dog behind her ear. Sadie whined again and pressed her head against Reagan's forehead. "I'm alright…"

Sadie pulled back as Reagan pulled herself upright and held a hand against her head. There was still a lot of commotion going on around the room, although some of it had died down for some reason. Once the pain had faded and she realized the room had gone mostly quiet, she blinked and turned to see what was going on around her. She was met with perhaps the most confusing scene of her entire teenage life.

A very large oval table filled the large room, and it was surrounded by a multitude of characters that looked oddly familiar. Some of them were whispering while others were looking at her, some in concern, some neutral, and others…. Well, kind of creepy. Skipping over the latter, once her gaze fell upon a familiar face standing nearby, she froze and her eyes widened.

 _Is that… who I think it is?!_ She wondered. A certain man with slicked back blonde hair and blue eyes stared back at her. Before she could exclaim, she glanced to her right and saw both Sam and Corytha still unconscious at her side. Sadie was pestering Sam now, dabbing at the girl's side with her front paws. _We blacked out… and now we're… here?_

"Hello there, bella~!"

Reagan jerked in surprise and snapped her head in the direction of the familiar voice to find a young guy with brown hair and an unnatural curl floating off to his right. His eyes were closed, but he was smiling at her brightly. _That face… the Italian accent… he has to be, but… how?_

"H-Hello…?" she replied, voice nearly gone from shock.

Suddenly the other man she'd noticed before came walking over, stopping a safe distance away next to a few other people who were standing and now looking at her. She cringed inwardly, hating the attention.

"How do you feel?" he asked in a distinctly German accent.

"..." she blinked, mentally slapping herself upside the head. _Answer him, idiot!_ "...Okay, aside from a headache…"

Beside the german, a man with dirty blonde hair and thick eyebrows gave her a concerned look and stepped closer, getting down onto one knee so as to not tower over her.

"What is your name?" he asked with a British accent.

 _This is getting weirder by the minute,_ she thought. "R-Reagan… Reagan Dutois," she replied. She glanced to her friends and decided she needed to take charge of the situation, seeing as this no longer felt like a dream. "T-These are my friends, Samantha Overby and Corytha Foster."

Sadie turned and stared at her a moment.

"And my dog, Sadie."

The dog went back to nudging Sam, causing the redhead to groan. She threw an arm out lazily to move the dog away then went back to her normal position, causing Reagan to sweatdrop. _Seriously? At a time like this and you won't wake up? Thank you, Sam._

Since no one else was moving to speak at the moment, she gulped lightly and turned to look at the British man, narrowing her eyes slightly out of curiosity.

"Would you mind telling me where we are, exactly…?" she asked.

He seemed to grow flustered at this and rubbed the back of his neck. "W-Well, you see, ah-"

"Dude you messed up bigtime!" another familiar voice, this time American, laughed from the side.

"Shut up, you git!"  
Reagan blinked as her expression fell. _This is going to take a while._ She turned her attention to Sam and poked her in the side. The redhead seemed to cringe but did nothing. So she prodded her again, this time taking note of how she would move and then return to normal. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at this.

 _Don't tell me she's…._

Finally she karate chopped her friend firmly in the side, causing her to jerk up and flail for a moment.

"What the hell-?!" Sam exclaimed, glaring at Reagan. "Why did you do that?!"

"Why were _YOU_ pretending to be asleep?!" she shot back.

Sam crossed her legs and scowled, glaring away towards the window. "I was just taking my time getting up."

"Yeah right," Reagan muttered. Sam finally looked out towards the room. As soon as she did, Reagan watched as her jaw dropped and her expression froze. The redhead began to poke Reagan in the arm, rapidly progressing faster as the full extent of what she was seeing began to hit her.

"Reagan… Reagan, it's…"

She grabbed her friend's wrist to keep her from poking her more and gently put it down a safe distance away from herself.

"I know, Sam," was all she said.

"..." Finally she looked at the German and jabbed a finger in his direction. "Yo! Germany! Explain what's going on here!"

He looked at her in surprise, looking for all the world like he was shocked at her words.

"Do you know who we are?" he asked.

Sam cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah, you're the countries."

Reagan mentally facepalmed, beginning to panic on the inside. This wasn't going to end well.

"How do you know who we are, dudette?" America asked, staring at her.

"...You're not… cosplayers… are you?" she asked, tilting her head. When he frowned and shook his head she was half ready to take a running jump from the window. What did they mean they weren't cosplayers? Sure they looked real and all, but…

"Why would you assume we are from an anime?"

Both the girls looked over to find Japan standing there, also looking confused. Leave it to him to know what cosplaying was. Sam furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"Because… you are…?" she attempted in reply.

"Japan, explain this," Germany demanded.

"It would seem that England has brought them here from a world where we're a show. We're fictional characters to them," he analyzed quickly. He pointed to Sam's shirt, which somehow they'd failed to observe before. The main characters were depicted there in a pile. Germany sighed at this and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Since you know who we are, we won't waste time with introductions, then. We will wait until the last one wakes up to discuss this."

As they waited for Corytha to get up, Sam and Reagan looked around the room and recognized just about everyone in it. From the main axis and allied powers to characters like Prussia, Spain, Romano and more, it seemed like just about every country from the show was in here, save for the Baltic Trio. All of the Nordics were there, Australia was even there, and Canada. Luckily the girls had been left in the corner, though Italy had brought over chairs so they could sit instead of staying on the floor as they had been doing. Only a few of them had even listened to the previous conversation, meaning most of them probably were unaware of all the details right now. Thank goodness for large spaces.

"Okay, what the hell is going on here?!" Sam hissed, looking at her friend urgently. "Why are we in a room filled with fictional characters?!"

"You're asking me?" Reagan replied in a hushed voice. "I don't know! Though from something I heard earlier, England might be the one we have to thank for this."

"Of course it would be his fault," Sam growled, casting a glance in his direction. "Are you sure we aren't dreaming though? This feels unreal."

"I've been up for a while now," Reagan sighed. "I tried pinching myself and doing other things but it's not doing any good. And besides, after what happened with the tv? It felt like we were getting sucked somewhere before getting knocked out back there."

"I felt the exact same thing," Sam nodded, slowly coming to realize this was no illusion.

They continued talking back and forth until they noticed Corytha petting Sadie on the head, waking up a bit from her previous state.

"S-Sadie?" she said softly, confused from the sounds surrounding her.

"Corytha!"

Corytha sat up now, alert and awake after her name had been spoken. Before she had a chance to see who'd said it though, her gaze was stuck on the scene before her. It took her all of a moment to assess where they were at before looking to Sam and Reagan, somewhat shocked to find her friends here as well.

"S-Sam? Reagan?" she murmured, her voice scared. "W-What's going on? What is this?"

Sam looked at her sadly and began to explain the situation.

"We're in the World Conference room of Hetalia, Cori… Reagan thinks England has something to do with why we're here but they haven't told us yet."

Reagan nodded in agreement and frowned at the blonde's slightly horrified expression.

"B-But that… shouldn't be possible…" she whispered, beginning to shake slightly. Sadie whined and pressed up against Corytha's legs, sensing her discomfort somehow. Germany looked over at this.

"Ah, you're awake," he said. She cringed a bit and sunk into her chair, gripping the arms like they were a lifeline for now.

"Since you're all probably wondering how you got here," he glared at England, "Would you like to explain, England?"

England muttered something under his breath but walked over and fixed them with a somewhat guilty stare.

"Y-You see, for a little while now there was a debate as to whether other worlds existed or not… so I made a spell that was supposed to show people in another world," he explained. "B-But for some reason instead of just showing people, it ended up dragging you here, it seems."

Though the explanation seemed farfetched, it was so simple that Sam almost had a hard time not believing it. She didn't want to, but there wasn't much else she could do. Or Reagan. Corytha would try as hard as possible to deny it until she couldn't anymore.

"So you're telling me we're all here because you just had to prove a point?" she stated with a small scowl.

"Pretty much!" America piped up.

"I-I'm sorry about this," England said, his face beginning to turn red a bit from embarrassment.

Sam cocked an eyebrow but said nothing.

"As fascinating as all this is, is there a way you can send us back?" Reagan asked, giving him a slightly pleading look.

"Aww, you're leaving already?" Italy seemed to pout, disappointed that he wouldn't get to show them anything while they were here.

"We don't exactly belong here," Reagan added, giving him a sad glance.

England sighed, unable to look at the girls due to his mistake.

"A-Actually," he said, "You might be stuck here for a little while."

All three of them froze.

"Since I didn't anticipate it would actually bring anything here, currently I don't have a spell that will send you back," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'll have to try and make a new one, but it could take a while to perfect."

Sam huffed in annoyance and threw her head back, throwing her arms up and clutching at the air.

"Fan-frickin'-tastic!" she growled. "Now we get to spend our summer stuck in a tv show!"

"I guess it's like Corytha said, we needed something interesting to do this summer," Reagan joked quietly, staring at the ceiling.

"T-This isn't what I meant!" the blonde defended quietly, looking away nervously.

"Well now that you dudes are here, you can chill with us!" America grinned, flashing them a thumbs up.

"I guess they will be needing somewhere to stay," Japan added.

"Since this is my fault, you're welcome to stay at my house," England offered. Suddenly France appeared next to him.

"Bah, they'll get bored staying at your place," he intervened. He pulled out a rose and winked at them with a smile. "Perhaps they would like to stay somewhere more exciting~?"

"...I call England's house!"  
"Me two!"

"Me three…"

France looked shocked at their choice and stared in horror towards the wall behind their heads, smiling faintly in disbelief. England smirked.

"Take that, frog!" he stated triumphantly.

"Oh please, this isn't a popularity contest," Sam said, glaring at them both. "He got us into this mess, he gets to help get us out of it."

Germany eventually pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, not entirely sure how things had progressed here so fast.

"Would you girls mind stepping into the lobby for a few moments?" he asked.

The three of them got to their feet and made their way out the double doors quickly with Sadie tagging along at their heels, eager to get out of the spotlight with so many people there.


	2. Chapter 2- Unbelievable

"Okay, I don't care who the hell they are, we are _not_ supposed to be here," Reagan said, pacing back and forth behind the couch that Sam and Corytha had sat down on.

Sam sighed and stared, worried, up towards the ceiling.

"I know, Reagan, but it's not like we have anywhere else to go until England fixes this, if they're telling the truth."

"Sam, they're saying we were brought here- across dimensions- because of a spell. This has to be some sort of a joke," she replied, eyes wide as she tried to resist biting at her nails.

"Right. A joke. And yet we've tried pinching ourselves, holding our breath, and splashing cold water on our faces. None of us are dreaming," Sam said sternly, giving her a stern look. "Face it, Reagan, this is real."

All three of them were riled up right now, mostly from the fact they'd just been in front of nearly all the countries of the anime Hetalia, and while they'd only been directly addressed by a couple of them so far it still felt overwhelming. Corytha could feel her pulse trying to jump out of her veins. She's spotted so many people in such a short amount of time. To think they'd all been unconscious in that room for a little while… she shuddered and gripped her arms tightly.

"I-It just… it makes no sense," Reagan breathed, pressing a hand to her forehead and leaning against the back of the couch. "H-How could this even happen?"

"Like I know?" Sam snorted. "Look, we can either let this freak us out or try to handle it as best we can. In the meantime maybe we'll learn some stuff while we're here, I don't know. But panicking isn't going to help us."

Reagan sighed and shook her head. This was a little too much to try and comprehend in a single day. And what about college? If they didn't get back within three months… and what about her grandma? The house was now completely abandoned. Could she even contact her grandma from here?

"Reagan, I know you're thinking. Stop. Thinking."

"Because that's easy," she mumbled, moving around to sit on a nearby chair.

"Thinking about this right now is only going to make it worse," Sam reasoned, trying to calm everyone down. In a crisis, it turned out, she was the best one for the job. "Just… process it, I guess."

"B-But they're all s-supposed to be f-fake," Corytha murmured, trembling on the spot.

Sam sighed heavily. This was going to take a while.

"U-Um, is now not a good time?"

They all looked over and found England standing there with Germany and Japan nearby, the former looking quite nervous about whatever he was about to say.

Sam narrowed her eyes and decided she needed to speak up for her friends, both of whom seemed immobilized right now.  
"No, now is a beautiful time for you to tell us you're going to find us a way home," she said icily, words laced with irritation. "Because if you don't, I will find a way to kick your ass!"

"Alright, everyone keep calm," Germany sighed, fixing Sam with a pointed look. "We understand this must come as a shock to the three of you, but what happened was an accident. Albeit a stupid one."

"Hey!"

"Some accident!" Sam said, raising her voice as she got to her feet. "Normally I would think this is cool, but my friends here aren't exactly thrilled. And as you can imagine, randomly appearing in a world full of characters who are supposed to be fictional isn't exactly a good way to wake up one day!"

"No, it's not, but if you keep acting like this then you'll only make it worse!" Germany shot back.

At this, Sam silenced herself and shot both him and England a glare, less than tolerant of the situation.

"I'm sorry for causing the three of you such trouble," England spoke up, hoping to ease the tension. "But it was an honest mistake, even if a terrible one. I'll start working on a spell to send you back right away, but I have to make sure I get it right so no more mistakes happen."

"H-How long are we going to be here?" Reagan spoke up, looking at him in concern.

He sighed. "Probably six months, at the shortest."

Everyone fell silent at this and took a moment to catch their breath. The news wasn't exactly what they wanted to hear. Then again, it was better than the alternatives, so they decided to bite their tongues.

Eventually Japan stepped forward and sat on a chair to face the rest of them and held his hands in his lap, giving them a sympathetic look.

"You seem much more animated now that you're out here," he commented.

Sam cocked an eyebrow.

"Being in front of like 30 plus people? Shock does that to a person," she replied dully.

"True," he said quietly. "Is there anything we can do to help you right now?"

Sam glanced to Reagan. She shrugged. They both looked at Cori, who was staring blankly at the floor in front of her and trying not to freak out with anyone in there. One of the first signs of her panic attacks included the rapid movement of her leg, which had already started. Her breathing was okay right now though.

Reagan looked back to Japan. "W-We're really here?"

He nodded slowly.

Sam stared at him too. "And you're really the countries?"

Another nod.

"...The only thing that will help right now is getting somewhere that isn't surrounded by everyone in that room," Reagan stated, finally releasing a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "We need a day or two to um… adjust to this…"

"Of course," Japan said.

"Would you mind if I took them back to my place early, then?" England asked Germany. "I don't believe I'll be needed for the rest of the meeting."

Germany nodded. "Go ahead. I'd rather not have everyone trying to talk to them right now anyway, the attention could prove… frustrating for them."

They all took note of Corytha's shaking form. If anyone else showed up at this point, they worried what the timid blonde might do out of fear.

"Right. Well all of you can follow me, it will be a few hours to get back to my house."

Without another word- not that they would have spoken even if they could- the three girls followed him into the parking lot and climbed into the back seat of his car as he drove several hours to his home.

* * *

When they reached his house, time seemed to fly by around the girls. He showed them to their room with the promise of showing them around the house tomorrow, but insisted that they get some rest for tonight before anything else. Seeing as they were still out of sorts, they didn't argue.

It was a guest bedroom with two queen sized beds and moderate decor. Sam took one bed while Reagan and Cori took another and laid there, silently, staring at the ceiling.

"...Anyone over this yet?" Sam eventually asked, arms held behind her head.

"Uh-uh."

"No…"

The redhead sighed and tilted onto her side to look at them.

"I say we all go to sleep. If we wake up here tomorrow, this is reality."

"And what about after that?" Reagan asked.

"After that, we'll just have to live here until England sends us home, plain and simple."

"...I'm going to sleep," Reagan sighed, getting under the covers and stuffing her face into the pillow. It was too late to be worrying about this right now… they needed to rest. None of them wanted to believe this was actually happening, but if Sam was right, then they would really find themselves waking up in a no-longer-fictional world for a while.

None of them had known how to react when waking up in the conference room. Shock had forced them into acting as though they were collected about it, but as soon as they'd left the room and were no longer being watched by a sea of eyes, they finally snapped free from the daze and had collapsed in confusion and panic in that lobby. It was for the best that they'd left when they did, to say the least.

"Goodnight," Sam eventually said, turning over and pulling the blankets up to her face. The others echoed her words and closed their eyes, forcing themselves to go to sleep and wishing desperately that this was some freak shared dream.

* * *

The next morning unfolded very slowly from the moment they woke up, still lying in the beds of England's guest room. Sunlight poured in through a large window to their left, basking the warmly colored room in a golden glow. The wooden furniture and British objects lining the walls had an almost unreal look to them now, though everything- as they finally had come to accept- was indeed real. Reagan was the first to sit up and observe the room that morning, followed by Sam and finally Corytha as the three friends awakened. All of them gradually found themselves staring at the British flag on the wall.

"...Looks like it wasn't a dream after all," Reagan sighed, turning so her feet hung off the side of the bed.

"Guess not," Sam agreed, turning to face her as she sat cross-legged on the opposite bed. "We're still in Britain's house, that's for sure."

Corytha gave a small sigh and sat down on the floor nearby to pet Sadie and get her bearings straight. "S-So we're really going to be stuck here for a few months?" she asked quietly.

"Seems like," Sam replied, glad the blonde was no longer on the verge of a panic attack from yesterday.

"I wonder if I can call grandma…" Reagan mumbled disheartedly to herself, reaching for the cell phone that had come with them when they were brought here by the spell. The three of them fell silent as ringing filled the room, as she'd turned on the speakerphone.

To their pleasant surprise and Reagan's relief, someone actually answered the call.

"Hello?"

It was her grandmother's voice.

"G-Grandma? Is that really you?" Reagan asked tentatively.

"Reagan? Yes deary, it's me. Are you alright? You sound upset."

A light rim of tears formed in her eyes at hearing that voice. She suddenly wished she could see her right now.

"S-Something's happened, grandma," she admitted.

"Oh? What's wrong, sweetie?"

"All of us are here, ma'am," Sam spoke up, keeping her voice low in case someone walking past their room heard them.

"Hello Sam, hello Corytha!"

"Hi…"

"Look, grandma," Reagan went on. "Um… you know those conversations we used to have about the existence of other worlds?"  
"Yes, that I do. Why?"

"Well yesterday… yesterday someone from another world used a spell, a-and it somehow dragged us into another world… we're literally sitting in the guest room of someone's house right now in England."

"Oh, my… Reagan, are the three of you okay? Are you hurt?"

"No, we're all fine, but… the man we're staying with isn't sure when he'll be able to send us back. He doesn't think he'll be able to in sooner than six months, Gran… we're going to be here for a while."

"Alright, girls, you listen to me and you listen closely," her grandmother suddenly began. "You're all smart and strong for your age, and at least you're all there together. If this man is letting you stay in his house I don't think he means you any harm so just sit tight and call me when you get the chance. Don't worry about the house. We'll figure out what to do with college when you all return, alright?"

Reagan's voice hitched in her throat just then, so Sam spoke up for the three of them.

"We got it, Granny," she replied, forcing a small smile even though the woman wouldn't see it.

"Okay, Sam. Now I'm going to hang up now so your phone doesn't lose charge Reagan, but call me every few days so I know you're alright, okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I can do that," she replied, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Good. I'll talk to you later then, buh-bye!"

"Bye grandma."

With that, the call was ended and the three of them were left sitting there, pondering what awaited them these next few months during their stay. Were they to just sit around and wait? Could they even go anywhere or do anything? Though it seemed unlikely, they could only hope..

"Well there's no point in sitting around here," Sam said after a little while. "Might as well go talk to England, he said he'd show us around."

"Yeah, that would probably be best," Reagan sighed, getting to her feet finally. The three of them walked downstairs, finding their way somewhat easily to the living room. They found their host drinking tea on the couch and watching television, though he stopped as soon as he noticed their arrival.  
"Ah, you're all finally awake," he commented, getting to his feet to address them. "Goodmorning."

"Morning," Sam yawned, covering her mouth in the process.

"Did you sleep well?"

"As well as we could, I guess," Reagan replied with a shrug. "We were pretty beat by the time we got here."

He gave them a look of sympathy and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yes, well, as long as you feel alright this morning. Would you like breakfast?"

Corytha's stomach lightly growled from nearby, causing her to blush in embarrassment. She lightly wrapped her arms around her abdomen, causing the british man to laugh a bit.

"I'll take that as a yes, then. Follow me."

They made their way into the kitchen, and soon the three of them were fixed up with bowls of cereal and milk for the morning. They all sat around the table but kept mostly to themselves aside from the occasional exchange of words. Though things were near silent at first due to the awkward nature of their being here, Reagan eventually broke the quiet.

"Alright," she sighed. "I know this is weird for all of us right now, but the last thing we need is to be all stiff around each other. Let's at least discuss this whole thing."

"R-Right," England said, folding his hands on the tabletop. "So where exactly are you girls from?"

"America," Sam replied. "Colorado, to be more exact."

"I see. So you came from a world similar to ours?"

"Pretty much exactly like yours, although there's no personifications of countries there."

"Japan said that we were a show where you're from. Is that true?"

"Yeah," Reagan nodded. "It's true. As far as we're concerned, we've been brought into an anime."

Knowing vaguely what an anime was thanks to previous experience, though he didn't have much of it, he continued.

"This must seem like a sort of dream to you then," he commented.

"I guess you could say that… although, since we know your characters, it's not quite as terrifying as it could be," Sam admitted, taking another bite of her cereal. "Still shocking as all hell though."

England chuckled at this.

"That's good, I suppose."

"It's also not surprising how we got here," the redhead stated, giving him a small glare as she implied the failed spell. He sweatdropped.

"I-I guess that show is accurate to our characters, then," he remarked, trying to get off the subject for now.

"From what we've seen so far, yeah," Reagan cut in now. "By the way, how long were we out yesterday in that conference room?"

England looked at her in an attempt to ignore Sam's penetrating stare from his other side.

"Probably little over a half hour or so," he replied, glancing up as he thought back on it. "See, at first the spell was working as planned… we could see images flashing in the spell, but once the image settled on you three, a gap of some sort appeared in the middle of it. Eventually it sucked you all in and you came tumbling to the ground unconscious, though your canine companion seemed mostly in a daze."

Reagan's eyes suddenly lit up when her dog came into the conversation. She gripped the table, her expression transforming into instant concern.

"Wait, where's Sadie? I-I forgot she was here too," she said suddenly.

England smiled. "She's in the backyard, don't worry."

Reagan calmed and let the tension leave her body, glad to know the shepherd was safe too.

"So what happened after we showed up?" Sam asked, growing curious as to how the countries reacted.

"For the most part, it was a mix between scolding me for whatever had just happened and figuring out what to do when the three of you woke up."

"It looked like a good portion of the countries were in there except for a few."

"Yes, it was a world meeting, so most of the major countries were there. Germany made sure to keep everyone in their seats though."

Everyone paused for a few moments, unsure where to take the conversation next. The girls had been left alone to recover from the trip over from their world. The next half hour was spent getting everyone to return to the previous conversation while England and the other main countries from the show sorted out what to do with them. Some suggestions were made, but as soon as Reagan woke up any previous plans had been abandoned in favor of figuring out who they were and informing them of the situation.

"I-If I may," Corytha finally spoke up softly, giving England a worried glance, "B-Britain, sir… what are we going to do while we're here?"

It was a good question, considering they couldn't really go anywhere on their own here. It would become frustrating to simply stay indoors the entire time, and even if they could walk around outside, they would get bored staying in the same place for six months straight- or more.

He smiled at the shy use of his name.

"You may call me Arthur, if that comes easier to you. In any case, other than staying here with me, I suppose we could find some days to take you girls out to town to see a bit of my country. I think a few of the others may plan on inviting you as well- Italy was particularly excited."

Reagan laughed a bit at that. "I think I remember him saying something yesterday. Guess he would jump at the chance to show someone around, huh?"

"Most of us would, I like to think," Arthur admitted. "We don't often get company that hasn't seen our lands before, since most of us are only acquainted with each other. Otherwise we tend to be busy, so any free time we have isn't spent showing strangers around."

Sam shrugged. "Makes sense I guess. Anyway did you say you were planning on showing us around today?"

He nodded, his expression lighting up as he remembered what he'd decided last night.

"Right! Let me clean up here. You girls can wait in the living room over there if you'd like."

While Sam and Reagan proceeded to the couch in the living room, Corytha remained standing nearby as Arthur started to gather their dishes from the table. It took only a moment of contemplation before she walked over and held her hands behind her back.

"W-Would you like some help?" she offered, noticing he was trying to get all of them at once. He looked over in surprise and blinked, not expecting any of them to offer their assistance.

"Um, sure," he replied, standing back to let her handle the rest. Once she collected them, she followed him into his kitchen and helped to clean them. She let him put them back though, not wanting to intrude. After he was finished he turned to face her, noticing only for a moment how she seemed to gaze around the kitchen with both curiosity and a certain degree of wariness. Those emotions soon faded when she realized he was looking at her though.

"Thanks for the help. Let's go get your friends, shall we?"

The girl nodded, smiling softly.

 _Definitely a shy one,_ he thought to himself. Ever since she'd been here, including yesterday, the blonde teen had hardly said even half as much as either of her friends.

They made their way into the living room, whereupon Arthur led them around the first and second floors of the house. It wasn't as huge or as confusing as they'd previously imagined one of the country's houses to be. It was simple yet finely decorated, which seemed to reflect his personality pretty well. As it turned out, there were several guest rooms down their end of the hall, with the other side having his room, a bathroom and storage rooms. The first floor had a living room and kitchen as they'd seen, as well as another room that Sam instantly dubbed the 'man cave' for what she believed to be obvious reasons, since it contained a pool table, tv and even several guitars. After the tour of the house he took them outside to the grounds surrounding it.

For the most part it was neatly trimmed lawn with a long gravel driveway that led to the main road. Tall trees lined either side of the path, casting long shadows over the four of them as they walked. Sadie had run over to greet them with enthusiasm. Since a fence surrounded the property she wouldn't have been able to run off, though it was unlikely that the loyal dog would, at least not permanently. There were a few benches under the trees as well as a fountain towards the middle and gardening done around the house. Across the road and down a steep slope, the ocean spread out into the horizon. The girls gawked by the time they'd reached the fence.

"Damn, Arthur," Sam whistled after a few minutes, "I never would have expected this from you!"

"This place is amazing!" Reagan added.

"It is really nice…"

He couldn't quite contain the pride in his voice at all of their compliments. Though he hated to admit it, his house wasn't as large as America's or nearly as decorated as France's, but he always thought it to be more refined, if anything. He smirked at his mental triumph.

"I'm quite proud of it myself," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Does everyone have a house like this?" Sam asked, turning to face him.

"If you mean large houses in general, then yes, most of us do."

"Holy crap!" the redhead threw her arms up and turned to face the water again. "Why can't we have a house like this!"

"Because we don't have that kind of money."

"Because we don't live near an ocean."

Corytha and Reagan responded in unison, causing Sam to sigh heavily and let her head drop.

Arthur laughed a bit as they talked amongst each other for a short while, taking in the scenery around them. It would be a nice change of pace to have them around, even if it was only for a short time. He made a mental note to start working on the research for a spell to send them home soon.

"I was wondering," he cut in after a moment of thought, "If the three of you would be interested in going shopping tomorrow. It would be a bit bad if you had to wear the same clothes for six months, after all."

"I'm up for it," Sam shrugged.

"Well I have something that might help," Reagan intervened, pulling out the white envelope from her pocket. Sam's eyes widened.

"You brought that thing with you?!"

"I had it with me when we got sucked into the tv! I was going to count some out for our shopping trip back home," she defended.

"What is it?" Arthur asked.

"These are funds my grandma left us for summer vacation when she left on her cruise. I know we'd probably have to convert it or something, but at least we won't be robbing you of your money," she replied with a small smile.

"At least we can buy what we want then~" Sam said, rubbing her hands together mischievously.

Reagan gave her a light glare.

"Nice try, Shaggy. You're limited to a week's worth of clothes and nothing more."

"Aww, why?!" she complained.

"Because we aren't moving in here, we don't need a whole wardrobe!"

"But I have to look nice on vacation!"

"This isn't a vacation, this is a temporary arrangement due to unforeseen circumstances."

"You're using big words again."

"Seriously? That's where this is going?"

Corytha stood beside Arthur and watched the two go back and forth for a bit longer. It was common for little outbursts to happen between the two of them. Somehow, Corytha always got stuck witnessing the conversations, though not usually with someone else.

Before anyone could do anything more, a few unexpected visitors arrived, walking up behind them.

"Hey~! How's it going you guys~?"

Everyone stopped and turned to investigate the source of the voice, only to find Italy, Germany and Japan walking over towards them from the front of the house. It seems they'd missed the car that drove by while standing near the fence and discussing tomorrow's plans.

"Oh, hello there," Arthur said in surprise. "I wasn't expecting anyone so soon."

"We wanted to see how the girls were doing today," Japan explained.

"We're doing alright," Reagan spoke up with a smile. "We're getting some clothes tomorrow for our stay here."

"Eeyup," Sam said, popping the last sound of the word.

"It's good to see you're settling in," Japan replied. A small smile graced his features, noticing that they'd somewhat calmed overnight from the strange situation they now found themselves in.

Now having the chance to greet the girls officially and in daylight, Italy seemed to beam in joy and drifted right over, eyes closed as was typical of his character in the show. It was almost like a happy aura just radiated out of him. Sam would have probably gagged if it were tangible.

"It's nice to finally meet you, ladies! I'm North Italy, though I think you already knew that; You can call me Feliciano if you want to, but anything works, really. Wa, all three of you are so pretty! It would be great if you could come over and visit my country sometime, yes~?"

Sensing that the Italian would keep babbling until someone said something, Reagan cleared her throat, unable to fight the blush dusting her features after his compliment mid-spiel.

"I-It's nice to meet you, Feliciano," she said, smiling. "And we'd love to visit sometime, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, that is."

"Of course not! You can come anytime~!" he piped up instantly.

Corytha bit the inside of her lip to refrain from giggling at his perky attitude while Sam mentally screamed. She knew he had energy for days, but this? It was unreal.

"Actually, I don't think we really had any formal introductions," Germany spoke up. "Even though you know who we are, maybe it would be a good idea."

Everyone gave a hint of agreement, so he decided to go first, following Italy's introduction with something more simple.

"I am Germany, but you can call me Ludwig. I understand this situation is quite unusual, so if there is ever a problem, feel free to contact me."

Japan stepped up next.

"And I am Japan. Since it seems we are going by our human names, you may address me as Kiku if you wish."

After giving them a polite bow, the girls all glanced between each other as though to determine who would go first. Reagan stepped up, deciding the others would just follow.

"I know I've already kind of spoiled our names, but I guess readdressing it wouldn't hurt. I'm Reagan Dutois."

"I'm Samantha Overby, but just call me Sam. It makes my life easier," Sam said next. Then they all turned their gazes to Corytha, who awkwardly glanced to her friends while holding herself with her arms. A bit daunted by the unwanted attention, the blonde glanced away nervously.

"C-Corytha Foster," she managed to say. "You can call me that, o-or just Cori, if you want to."

The blonde didn't expect it when Feliciano walked over to her and waved his arms about.

"Wow, I've never heard a name like that before! It's so beautiful~!"

The blunt compliment left her blushing profusely and shuffling a foot against the ground beneath her feet.

"U-Um, th-thank you?" she replied in a hesitant voice. This only seemed to provoke the Italian more.

"Ahh~!" he stepped closer. "Can I hug you? Please tell me I can, please?"

Since the entire encounter was leaving her at a loss for words at the moment, she shrugged in confusion before attempting to reply. "I-I guess? Wha-"

Before she had a chance to finish, Feliciano had thrown his arms around her in a fairly tight hug, causing her entire body to stiffen in shock. Cori stared out over his shoulder and blinked slowly, paralyzed on the spot from the sudden touch. She wasn't used to being handled like this. Sometimes she flinched even when Sam or Reagan touched her, and she knew them well.

"Italy, I think you're scaring her," Japan said in concern, noticing her frozen expression. Germany sighed and pried him off of her after he didn't let go for over a minute, and Corytha quickly stepped back, turning away to regain her composure.

Sam scowled a bit. "Lucky," she muttered. Sure she found the Italian slightly annoying, but the fact her friend was the first one on the receiving end of a hug from any of the fictional characters made her slightly jealous. ...Okay, very jealous. But she wouldn't admit this out loud.


	3. Chapter 3- First Friends

A little while later after they'd returned to the house, the countries went into the living room while the girls returned to their room upstairs. It had been agreed that they would continue to share a room until they felt more at home here and they didn't want to get in the way of any important conversations the countries might be having. Now back in the guest bedroom, they sat on their beds from the night before and faced each other to talk.

"Well today has certainly been eventful so far," Sam started. "We woke up in Britain's house, he's taking us shopping tomorrow, and we're now acquainted with the Axis powers."

Reagan laughed. "And Corytha got a welcome hug from Italy."

Corytha sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "More like a death grip, I thought he wasn't going to let go!"

"I don't think he was until Germany stepped in," Sam snorted. "But c'mon, it wasn't that bad."

The blonde smiled a bit in reply. "He's perky, I'll give him that. Still not good with the whole 'touchy' thing though, you know."

At this, Sam's expression faltered. A brief hint of sorrow passed through her eyes.

"I know…"

Reagan broke in, hoping to lighten the subject rather than let it drift down a dark road. "Anyway, how cool is this?" she beamed. "I mean it was shocking at first, but now I'm kind of excited. Meeting them was awesome alone! What if we get to meet all of the countries?"

Sam beamed instantly, her eyes growing wide with her own enthusiasm. Corytha wished she could share fully in the joy, though a part of her was still wary of the whole situation in general. Still, it would be neat to meet her favorite characters…

"I want to meet everyone!" the redhead announced. "I want to talk to Russia, America, Prussia, the Nordics-"

"Ooh, the Nordics. They would be fun to hang out with I think," Reagan grinned. "Didn't you have a crush on Denmark or something, Cori?"

"I-I, um," Corytha rubbed the back of her neck. "I mean, I did, but…"

"I think his enthusiasm would be a bit much for her. Maybe Norway or Finland would work better," Sam mused, glancing towards the ceiling.

"Work better?! It's not like we'll end up in any relationships in six months, Sam. It doesn't matter!" she protested.

Sam shrugged and held her hands up defensively. "Hey, we can dream, can't we? Anyway Reagan you should be happy, considering you like England."

Reagan flushed instantly, glancing quickly to the door and flailing her hands.

"Keep your voice down!" she hissed. "He could be right outside the door!"

The redhead laughed. "Fine, fine."

"I know you guys are excited and all, but is it really a good idea to meet everyone? I mean what if you get all attached to them and then England finds a spell that will send us back? Maybe we should keep a low profile…"

"Corytha, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We aren't going to spend it hiding out in this house," Sam replied.

"She's right, I mean it might be sad the day we leave, but think about the awesome memories we'll have that we met actual anime characters!" Reagan added.

Just by meeting a few of the countries, the girls had come to feel more grounded in this world. It seemed to open their eyes in a way nothing else could, and by talking to them they'd realized how painfully real it felt to be here now. They'd returned to their normal selves within a few simple hours. To say they were relieved with the outcome would be an understatement.

Moments later, someone knocked on the door to their bedroom.

"Who is it?" Sam called out.

"Ciao, it's me~!" Italy's voice rang out from beyond. The girls glanced between one another.

"Come in?"

He opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

"They started talking about something downstairs, but Germany told me to go entertain myself elsewhere, whatever that means," the Italian explained quickly.

"We were just talking about today. You can join us if you want," Reagan offered with a smile.

"Okay, great!" he replied, plopping down on the open space beside Sam.

After a few minutes, the curious Italian began asking more questions about the girls themselves.

"So you guys are from America, right?"

"Yep, good 'ole United States," Sam confirmed. "Colorado, more specifically. By the Rocky Mountains."

"That's cool. Are you in school? You all seem pretty young," he commented.

"Yeah, we're supposed to start college soon," Reagan replied.

"I always wondered what going to college felt like… By the way, what were the three of you doing before Britain's spell brought you here?"

"We were just watching tv," Sam said with a shrug. "We live together in the same house."

"Wow, really?"

"Yep! My grandparents paid the house off for us so we could live there for college. Me and Sam are going to the same university; Corytha was just going to take online classes, so we figured it would work well for the three of us."

"Sounds like fun! Maybe you can visit some of us and have a lot of fun before you go home! It could be one heck of a summer~"

"I like the way you think," Sam grinned.

"Would you want to come visit my country?" he asked with a hopeful expression.

"Absolutely!"

Both Sam and Reagan had said this in unison, causing Italy to get excited while Corytha smiled softly to herself. While she was a bit cautious about everything, she figured the experience could be quite fun. And what better way to explore a country than by the country himself?

Just then, the doors opened again and the others came into the room, surprised to find the four of them talking on the beds. Italy was the first to speak up, not thinking much of the intrusion, it seemed.

"Hey there guys! Guess what? The girls said they would like to travel! Can they come with me for a little while? It would be so much fun! Of course you can come too if you want to~!"

Germany sighed. Even though he was used to Italy's random ideas and fast speaking, it still made him feel tired for some reason.

"Maybe later, Italy. But they still have to settle here first," he replied.

Britain nodded, crossing his arms. "It wouldn't be good for them to travel right now, they don't even have clothes or any personal supplies."

"Ooh, I forgot…" the Italian seemed to deflate at the realization he couldn't have them over right at that moment.

Reagan and Sam gave Britain pleading expressions, waiting for the unanswered half of the question. He rolled his eyes.

"Once they have what they need though, I suppose if they want to travel there's no point in making them stay here… might as well try to have some fun while they're stuck," he added. The girls and Italy all perked up and inwardly cheered at the victory.

"Anyway we came up here to see if you all would like to go out for dinner," Japan spoke up, getting back to the original reason they'd come upstairs at all.

They hadn't noticed how late it had gotten, but it was already well past four. The tour must have been longer than they thought. Or perhaps they'd talked downstairs longer than they thought? Either way, they were hungry, seeing as the only thing they'd eaten was cereal this morning. Not the most filling thing in the universe, although to Corytha it was honestly all she needed.

Sam's stomach growled shortly after his statement, causing her to rub the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Food would be nice," she replied. A few of them laughed.

"Let's get going then, there's a good pub downtown and it fills up fast around this time," Britain advised, turning to leave the room. They all followed him downstairs and headed into town.

It was a pretty short trip. Within minutes they'd gotten to the pub, gone inside and had been seated at a long table near the back of the place. The girls were told to get whatever they wanted, so Sam and Reagan both set out to find the best thing they could on the menu while Corytha had somehow already decided on something to get. Once everyone had gotten what they'd ordered, conversation slowed down at first until Japan eyed Corytha's almost empty plate. The near silent blonde had only ordered a salad and settled for coke, but was drinking it at a snail's pace to avoid getting a refill. It was odd, considering everyone else had gotten more of a meal, and none of them were over halfway done.

"Corytha are you sure that's enough? You must be hungry," he said, glancing at the empty plate in front of her. Britain looked over and recoiled in surprise.

"You're finished already?" he exclaimed. She blushed fiercely and looked down.

"S-S-Sorry, I didn't mean to wolf it down," she replied, honestly embarrassed.

"Don't worry about that, you should get something else if you're that hungry," Germany advised. He'd noticed how thin her form seemed a little while ago and wondered if she ever ate enough.

"I-I'm fine, really…"

"Yeah, she really doesn't eat too much. She'll be fine," Sam intervened as she took another bite of meat. Corytha mentally thanked her friend for coming to the rescue. After that they let it drop, though even the waiter was shocked to return and find her finished.

Once finished with dinner for that evening they went back to Britain's house and returned to the living room where they were starting to say their goodbyes for the time being. There would be another meeting next week with the countries, so they decided a brief introduction would be made at the end about the girls and their stay just so everyone was aware. Before they left Italy had something else to ask.

"Hey you guys," he said, turning to the girls, "Do any of you have a number? I want to be able to talk to you even when I'm not here! That would be fun, right~?"

Reagan smiled a bit and pulled out her cell phone. "Sure, if you want. Here it is."

The two exchanged numbers before Sam decided to do the same, but Corytha's phone had been left back in their world. Within no time they had already started texting just to verify. Germany rolled his eyes when they seemed to continue.

"Stop texting already, you're standing right there!"

They giggled and put their phones away. That's when Britain furrowed his eyebrows in wonder.

"I wonder if your phones can still contact numbers back in your world," he thought aloud.

"Oh, they can," Sam said nonchalantly. He looked at her in surprise.

"I called my grandmother this morning," Reagan explained. "I had to tell her we'd be gone for a while."

"I see… does she know where you are?"

"I tried to explain it to her, so I think she knows. Alternate universe and all."

"Wait what, really?!"

"Strange that your grandmother would go along with something like that, it seems to me most people would find it farfetched," Japan said.

"Me and my grandma used to talk about this kind of thing all the time," the strawberry blonde waved a hand in dismissal. "About the idea of other worlds and stuff."

"Ve~ that's pretty cool!"

Shortly after, the group finally left to head back home. It was getting late, so Britain told them to sleep well and proceeded to his bedroom. They returned to their own room and plopped down on one bed in a circle, talking as they usually did when it was just the three of them.

"You know, I think I'm gonna like hanging out here for a little while!" Sam grinned.

"I agree, it should be an interesting change of pace," Reagan laughed, receiving another text from Italy. "You know, if we can call our world, maybe when we get back we can still text them, too!"

Sam snorted. "Do they have plans for texting over dimensions?"

The girls laughed and talked about the day and what clothes they might find when they went shopping tomorrow. Most of the talking was between Reagan and Sam, though Corytha chipped in every once in a while.

"Is he still texting you?" Sam asked, peering over Reagan's shoulder.

"Yeah, he's asking about what we're doing tomorrow."

"Oh?"  
"He wants us to send pictures so he can see what we get," she laughed, trying to talk and text at the same time.

Sam shook her head and sighed. Then her own screen lit up and she snorted.

"Guess we'll have some reporting to do tomorrow."

Reagan smiled softly, inwardly happy that they had at least one friend here already. Of course it made sense who that first friend was, given Italy's personality. She considered the others to be her friends too but knew they wouldn't all return the title, most likely. Suddenly while replying to Italy she received another message and blinked, seeing it coming from an unknown sender.

"Um, I just got a text from 'Unknown?'"

Sam looked over from her screen while Corytha cocked an eyebrow, observing everything since she didn't have a phone of her own.

"What does it say?"

"Uh… it says, 'Hello. Italy gave me your number, I hope that's alright?'"

"I guess it's one of the countries then."

* * *

Reagan: "It's fine, but may I ask who this is? (: "

Unknown: "Oh, my apologies. It's Japan."

Reagan: "Hey Japan! :D I guess Germany is driving then, haha."

Japan: "How did you figure that?"

Reagan: "Well you guys just left like twenty minutes ago, & I'm texting Italy."

Japan: "Fair point. /"

* * *

Reagan beamed. "I now have Japan texting me too~" she sang slightly in victory. Sam pouted.

"So he wanted your number but not mine?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure someone else will get your number," she teased.

Sam's eyes narrowed and a mischievous smile spread across her face. "I demand a challenge."

"Huh?"

"We will compete to see who can get more countries to text them!" she announced. "Whoever has the most by the end of our visit, wins."

Corytha's expression dropped, eyelids drooping. Of course Sam would turn it into a contest. One that she couldn't even be a part of, not that she would have willingly gotten involved.

"You're on I guess, but don't be surprised when I win!" Reagan beamed, trying to act sly.

"I think I'm going to sleep now, you guys," Corytha murmured, rubbing her eyes.

"Alright. Goodnight!"

While she went to sleep and they turned off the lights, she could hear her friends giggling in the other bed. Light upon the ceiling told her they were still texting and probably would for a little while. Gradually she forced herself to just close her eyes and go to sleep.

* * *

When the next morning rolled around, all three of them were up bright and early, quite excited to get out and see some of the world they were now in. They were happy to be getting some clothes and other things for their stay, but mostly they wanted to see something new since none of them had ever left the USA in their lives. Britain- or Arthur as he asked them to call him while in public- brought them into the part of town with the most frequented clothing stores for convenience's sake.

"Alright, you girls should get at least a week's worth of clothes. We'll see where we're at afterwards and if it's not too much you can get more," he instructed as they approached the first stop. Reagan looked at him and pulled the white envelope from her pocket.

"Well we have some money of our own, we can convert it and pay for it ourselves," she reasoned. He shook his head with a small smile.

"Don't worry about that. If it weren't for me you wouldn't even have a need to buy more clothes, so it's my responsibility to handle these things."

She sighed a bit but thanked him and put the envelope away, pleasantly surprised by the way he was approaching this. She could see his point, although it seemed unfair that he had to waste his money on three teenage girls. It wasn't exactly his plan for them to come here either. But she knew she wouldn't win any arguments over the subject, so she let it drop.

They walked into the store whereupon Sam and Reagan dispersed quickly to explore the rows of clothing. Corytha stood dumbfounded by the entrance for a moment next to Arthur, unsure where to even begin. He glanced at her and waited for her to do something, though she didn't seem like she was going to move anytime soon.

"Yo Cori! Get over here!'

"C-Coming!" she called hesitantly, finally scooting off into the store. He smiled a bit and decided to wait by the front until they were finished.

After Sam and Reagan had found several things they liked, Reagan and Arthur sat on the chairs outside the dressing room while Sam dragged Corytha around the store. The blonde was reluctant to get half the things she saw, the other half being what Sam noticed her paying some attention to. She would grab the item and shove it into her friend's hands to try on. It took a little over fifteen minutes to finally get her into the dressing room to try them on.

The store had similar clothing to what they may find in the US, so it wasn't surprising when Corytha came out in light blue jeans and a white top with white sandals. The top had angel wing sleeves and fitted closely near her torso but remained loose up top, giving it a flowy appeal. With her silver pendent resting over the fabric, she looked nearly picture perfect as she stood there holding her arms.

"W-Well? Does it look alright?" she asked, looking over at her friends. Their jaws had dropped momentarily.

"You're getting that," Reagan said instantly. She looked at Sam. "She's getting that."

"Yes, yes she is."

Corytha laughed a bit at their reactions. It had been like this whenever they'd gone shopping before, after she'd moved in with Reagan. It brought back good memories. She felt it was their way of boosting her self esteem. It usually worked. Before she could return to her room, Sam stopped her.

"Hold on, let me get a pic," she said, straightening her phone and snapping a picture of Corytha looking slightly surprised.

"W-What? Why?" she asked, watching as her friend seemed to be sending her picture somewhere.

"Italy wanted to see what we got, remember? You don't have a phone, so I'm reporting for you," she replied matter-of-factly. The blonde blinked but shook her head and returned to the room to try on the next set.

Eventually they got their clothes and left for the next store. Things had started off pretty productive, they'd each bought two outfits from the first store. At this rate they'd be set before dinner. After stopping by two more places, Sam received a reply and snorted with laughter, stopping them in their tracks.

"What is it?" Arthur asked, cocking an eyebrow.

The redhead, unable to speak at the moment, shoved her phone forward for them to read.

* * *

Sam: "here's something Cori got"

Italy: "Wow! Ah she looks so cute! Germany told me to stop showing him pictures but I have to show him this one! :D :D"

* * *

Corytha's face flushed slightly. "Did you really have to send him that picture? I look like I just spotted something odd."

"Corytha that's the expression you wear most of the time…"

She stared back for a moment then sighed and turned around, walking ahead of them all for once. The worst part is, she knew her friend was probably right.

Finally they reached the last store and collected a few more shirts and pants, though Corytha and Reagan both found a dress or two they liked. Since they'd managed to hit a few sales, Arthur let them get some extras as promised. He also let Corytha keep a tan fedora Sam had insisted she get, since it made her 'look classy.' The remainder of their time in town was spent getting things like shampoo, toothbrushes and other personal items, though he just gave the girls money and waited for them outside while they got these things. He refused to be present when they had to buy certain things so it was the easiest solution available. When they returned, they gave him any leftover cash and followed him to a local place to eat dinner.

While sitting at the table with all their bags stashed near their feet, Reagan piped up after they placed their orders.

"Thank you so much for everything, Arthur. We really appreciate it," she admitted, still feeling a bit guilty he'd paid for all of these things.

"It's not trouble at all," he smiled. "Like I said, it's the least I can do for bringing you here in the first place."

"Still, it's not like you planned on the spell bringing us here, so it's not technically your fault. We could have at least helped to pay for some of this," she sighed, revealing her thoughts from before. Sam inwardly rolled her eyes, though she respected her friend highly for thinking in this way. She was sometimes more mature than both her and Corytha put together and was always putting others ahead of herself. Even in strange times like this, she was still thinking of others.

Arthur's smile only grew as he shook his head.

"What kind of gentleman would I be if I didn't take charge of my own mistakes?"

Reagan simply smiled but let it drop.

"I'm actually not surprised though," Sam changed the direction of the conversation. "I mean what we saw here wasn't all that different from what we see in America, at least clothing wise. On the outside though, it's definitely different."

"Yeah, it's really cool!" Reagan went on, her face lighting up again with excitement. "There's some really neat architecture around here!"

"Have you girls ever been outside of America?" Arthur asked curiously.

"Nope!" Sam said, popping the 'p.' "We're new at this whole tourist thing."

Reagan laughed. "So any dumb questions we might have, sorry."

He chuckled. "That's alright. Do you have anything to ask me?"

The two girls glanced between one another before firing off a few basic questions that he answered with ease. The conversation drifted into the more cultural side for a while and continued even while they ate their meals. To him, it was refreshing for someone to be so inquisitive about these things. As they continued to express interest, he couldn't help but think of an idea, though he was unsure of what they might say.

"Say, are there any places you'd like to visit while you're here?" he asked, glancing between the three of them.

Reagan was the first to grin. "I would like to see the parliament building and Big Ben! The architecture is amazing. Ooh, and the Eye of London."

"It would be cool to see the Tower of London," Sam added.

Corytha rubbed the back of her head and sweatdropped.

"C'mon Cori, I know you have a destination in mind," Reagan prompted, giving her a knowing look.

She sighed. "W-Well I want to see Stonehenge, but I'm not sure how far that is from here."

"Not a problem," Arthur said, closing his eyes triumphantly since they actually did have things they wanted to see here. "It's a little under two hours, not bad at all for a day trip. If you girls want, we can hang around the house tomorrow and then do some touring over the next few days."

"That would be awesome! But… are you sure you aren't busy? I mean you do run this whole place basically," Sam said, growing confused.

"Not to worry, I have plenty of help with all that," he waved a hand in dismissal. "And besides, I could use a bit of a break myself."

Sam pumped a fist triumphantly. "Then adventure it is!"

Reagan and Corytha laughed at their friend's display.

* * *

Some time later when they'd all returned to the house, they set out to trash all of the tags and throw their clothing into the wash so they'd be able to wear fresh clothes starting tomorrow. They all had three sets of pajamas as well. Their budget for clothes had been far greater than they were expecting in the end. One by one each of them took a shower, glad to finally feel fresh after nearly three days without either a shower or being able to brush their teeth. It was a much welcomed relief, to say the least.

Corytha was the last to wrap things up in the bathroom upstairs and come back down wearing her icy blue pajamas that had a solid top and striped long bottoms. When she entered the living room, Sam waved her over and she sat between the redhead and Reagan while Arthur sat on a recliner nearby. He'd made hot tea for everyone, so she took a sip from her mug and instantly warmed on the inside, smiling with delight. She was a sucker for warm drinks.

Arthur glanced over at her arrival and smiled briefly at her expression from the tea before remembering something.

"Oh! Corytha, I have something for you," he said, rushing off to retrieve something. He returned with a small bag in his hands and passed it to her. "I got this while the three of you went off before."

The blonde curiously accepted the bag and rummaged through it, her eyes widening when she saw what it was. Her fingers carefully pulled out an iphone. It was space grey in color and was the same generation as Reagan's. She glanced between the phone and Arthur, unable to say anything for a few moments.

"I noticed yesterday that you didn't have a phone. While you're here it would be good to be able to contact your friends or any of us in case of emergencies, though I should hope there wouldn't be one."

"Th-Thank you so much," she stuttered, still in shock. "B-But you didn't have to get something this fancy, I-I mean they cost a lot, and-"

"I pulled some strings," he admitted with a shrug. "The phone didn't cost me a thing, but I did have to pay for a plan. You've got unlimited call and text for a year right now."

She shook her head in disbelief. "I-I don't know what to say… th-thank you, really, I…"

"Well c'mon girl, start that thing up and let me put in your number!" Sam said, bumping her friend lightly in the shoulder. Beginning to grin, she eagerly turned it on and set everything up, even applying nature backgrounds to her lock and home screens. Reagan scooted over to add her to her contacts while Sam did the same. After they all exchanged numbers with Arthur, they returned to watching television while Corytha explored the app store. Even back in their world, her phone had been a simple flip phone with a small texting plan and no apps, so she was curious about what she may find.

The news had grown dull sometime after nine, so Arthur said goodnight before heading upstairs. Meanwhile the girls returned to their room and laid down on their beds, each of them on their phones for different reasons. Reagan was texting, Sam was fighting on Clash of Clans and Corytha had downloaded a Pet Hotel maker.

* * *

Feliciano: "How was your day? :D"

Reagan: "It was really fun! ^^ Arthur's going to show us around his place soon."

Feliciano: "Yay~ Are you excited?"

Reagan: "Definitely. I've never been outside the US before. Just walking around today was amazing. We're gonna see the parliament building, the Eye, Stonehenge… we've got a lot to see."

Feliciano: "There will be a lot to show you here too~ Save some excitement for my place too, okay? :D ;D"

Reagan: "XD Absolutely."

Reagan: "Oh, and Corytha got a phone today. I don't know if you wanted her number or not."

Feliciano: "Yea yea~! Please :)"

* * *

"Hey Corytha, can I give Italy your number?" Reagan asked, text at the ready since she figured it would be fine.  
"I guess so," the blonde replied, distracted by her current task of grooming dogs and cats. Suddenly the question caught up with her and she paused, growing slightly worried. _I'm not sure, maybe that's not such a good idea…_

"U-Um, actually," she started to murmur. But it was too late, Reagan had sent the text. She glanced over to Corytha curiously.

"What was that?"  
"Nothing," she sighed, realizing the damage had already been done. Surely enough, moments later, she heard a ping and looked down to see a message just disappearing from her screen. She gulped lightly and opened up her messages.

* * *

Feliciano: "Hey Cori~! :D Reagan gave me your number so I could talk to you!"

Corytha: "Hi Feliciano (="

Feliciano: "You can call me Feli if you want to c:"

Corytha: "Haha, alright. Hello Feli :P"

Feliciano: "So what are you up to, bella?"

Corytha: "Nothing much, we're just hanging out before bed."

Feliciano: "Ah, okay. Did you have fun shopping today?"

Corytha: "Yeah, it was fun. I don't usually shop much."

Feliciano: "You looked great in everything though! :D"

Corytha: "Thanks /"

Corytha: "I think I'm going to get some sleep soon, I'm pretty tired."

Feliciano: "Okie dokie, goodnight Cori~! :D Hugs for you! \\(^-^)/ See?"

Corytha: "Goodnight Feli! \\(^-^)/"

Feliciano: "Ciao~!"

* * *

By the end of the brief conversation, she had a small smile plastered to her face. It had been a while since she'd texted anyone, really. The way he texted was admittedly uplifting, too. Despite the fact he'd startled her yesterday with a hug, reading his messages left her feeling oddly happy.

"I'm gonna hit the hay," Sam piped up, turning off her phone and sliding under the covers with a yawn. "It's been one heck of a day, but we get to be lazy tomorrow at least."

"Yep, and then we've got some sights to see!" Reagan said as she followed Sam's lead and got under the covers. Corytha did the same, rereading her messages from Italy for a moment before setting it on the bedside stand.

Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she thought.

* * *

 **AN: Sorry for so many page breaks! On the original documents I was able to change text colors to make it easier to read in between texting and regular writing. Guess I'll have to edit this later perhaps, unless it's not too big of an issue. Also be prepared for editing of some of these earlier chapters in the future because it's been a while and my writing style has changed a bit over time, but most of it will probably be left alone for reflection's sake, as this is my first fanfiction. (:**


	4. Chapter 4- The Fun Begins

The next few days passed by faster than the girls could have imagined. On their lazy day they hung out around the house and got used to the silence, even sharing in Arthur's 'Tea Time' when he invited them to. They paid little attention to the news on television, instead talking more about what the countries did for their jobs and how different things worked that the show had never directly explained. Reagan even provoked a pretty extensive history lesson about the UK, and in the end was left with a large book to further her learning. While Corytha was interested, she decided to let Reagan read and tell her about it later. Meanwhile Sam was just enjoying the fact all of this was still real and they would be meeting more countries next week.

After their lazy day, Arthur did as he'd promised and took them to different locations for four days straight. The first day involved Reagan's points of interest, which included the parliament building and Big Ben. The tour of the building had been interesting, though at times Sam would zone out and just stare at random things in the area. Reagan and Corytha listened intently, though Reagan would often ask questions or even point out extra things to Corytha about the architecture and elements that came from different places. She'd taken a course in Art History, and this building was one of the things they talked about in the architectural unit. Her favorite was the rib vaulting. They stood outside to hear Big Ben go off, to which Reagan almost squealed in delight while they walked on to see the London Eye. The later it had gotten after dinner that night, lamps came on while they moved along, and the girls couldn't help but feel moved by the lights in the growing darkness of night. Even the ferris wheel was illuminated in blue, and Reagan stared at it in wonder for some time until Sam began to insist it was time to head back.

With that day done, the next was spent at the Tower of London, followed by Arthur showing them around that part of town for a little while. Sam particularly enjoyed watching the guards moving about, and she knew there would be more to see at their next destination as well. She wasn't dumb enough to try pulling any stunts though, as she sometimes saw others doing. Arthur didn't seem too fond of the behavior anyway, and she had no desire to get on his bad side, even though she was honestly curious. They went to Buckingham Palace the next day, and finally on the last day they ventured out over an hour that morning to let Corytha see the ancient site of Stonehenge. Considering the blonde hadn't said much since their arrival in this world, her companions were shocked as she started babbling on about how cool the stones were and how hard it must have been to move the stones from miles away, since she knew quite a bit about them and the theories surrounding their existence. To be honest, she was a fanatic about ancient civilizations and mysterious places, and Reagan shared some of her enthusiasm, though she preferred more modern art and buildings. At one point she even asked the Brit if he knew anything else about them, but he'd only laughed and said she'd nearly covered it all. Since it was made before he was even a country, he himself didn't know exactly how they'd come to be.

Later that night they all walked back into the house and went to their usual seats in the living room. Sam yawned and held a hand over her mouth while Reagan set down the history book she'd still been reading and smiled fondly, recalling everything they'd experienced the past few days.

"Well this has been the best few days of my life so far," she announced with a grin. Arthur beamed with pride. He wouldn't lie, he'd had a lot of fun too showing them around, even if it only scratched the surface of his country.

"Yeah, thanks for putting up with our American tourist habits," Sam grinned, crossing her arms behind her head. "And to think that's probably like 5% of all the stuff you can see here!"

"Thank you for today." Corytha added with a shy smile of her own.

It wasn't often that he truly enjoyed having company around him, considering most of the time it ended up being someone like America or France who seemed to enjoy ruining his peace. Having them around had been a change of pace for once, and they'd only been curious to know more. He'd expected having three teenage girls around would be somewhat of a challenge, but instead they were well-mannered and helped out when they got the chance. Though Sam cracked jokes every now and then, even she would ask if he needed her to do anything during their downtime. For teenagers, they were oddly polite and open-minded.

"It's been my pleasure," he said with a slight nod. "Honestly I'm surprised the three of you wanted to look around at all, but I'm glad you enjoyed it."

"Why wouldn't we?" Reagan asked, tilting her head with a slightly confused look. "There's a lot of neat stuff to see here."

"Well to be frank, at your age I figured all you'd be interested in was either lounging around or shopping," he said with a nervous laugh before straightening up and clearing his throat. "But you've proven me quite wrong about that."

"Damn straight," Sam replied bluntly. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I'm not wasting it by sitting on my ass the whole time! I've got things to do and places to see!"

"That, and we're probably not like your average teenagers," Reagan reasoned with a knowing smile of her own. "At least I should hope."

After a few more minutes, Reagan suddenly gasped and fumbled for her phone, desperately pulling it out and turning it on. The others looked at her in surprise from the sudden worry on her face.

"What is it?" Arthur asked in moderate concern.

"I forgot to call my grandma! She told me to call her every couple days," she said quickly, dialing the number and holding the device to her ear. She put it on speaker upon Sam's request while Arthur muted the television. A few rings later, someone answered the phone.

"Reagan? Is that you?"

The strawberry blonde smiled in relief. "Hey grandma! Yeah, it's me."

"Oh! It's so nice to hear from you dearie!"

"I'm so sorry, I forgot to call you a few nights ago," she sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"Don't you worry about that, I'm just glad you're alright. How's everything going over there?"

"It's going fine. You wouldn't believe the things we've seen these past few days!"  
"Oh? Really?"

For the next half hour, Reagan and her friends described what they'd seen and experienced in their short time here so far. It had hardly been a week and already they'd had a good time exploring a new place and trying new foods. Even Corytha was finally more at ease about the situation, her own worries fading a bit as she felt safer being here until they went home. Towards the end of the conversation, her grandmother even asked to talk to Arthur, commenting on his charming accent and thanking him for taking care of the girls while they were there. Overall it was a pleasant conversation for everyone.

A little while later, they said their goodbyes and hung up the phone, leaving the room in silence for several moments before Arthur decided to break it.

"Your grandmother seems like a really nice person," he commented with a smile, looking at Reagan. Then his smile faltered a bit, glancing between the three of them. "Though I'm kind of curious, why is it that you girls haven't called your parents?"

This time is was a somewhat disturbing silence that fell upon the room. They'd already explained to him before that they were all friends living in the same household, so he knew they must have had separate families. Though it was strange how even Reagan had only called her grandmother and not her parents.

"W-Well, my grandmother is the one in charge of us, technically, since we're living in a house that she paid for. My grandparents take care of me," Reagan reasoned, trying to keep her tone normal.

"Yeah, and my mom quite frankly doesn't care what I do. To be honest the only one who should know is Reagan's grandma. By the time we get back it's not like our parents will even have to know this happened."

"Plus they're not open-minded like she is," Reagan continued. "They wouldn't believe us even if we told them."

Arthur gave them a somewhat questioning look. He supposed it did make sense, but the way they'd delivered their words was somewhat… scrambled. As if there was something more that they didn't want to say. He decided not to push it in case he was stepping into uncomfortable territory.

"...I see." It was all he could think to say.

"Anyway, when's that meeting supposed to be?" Sam prompted, hoping to change the direction of the conversation.

"Ah, that. Two days from now," he said. "It will only be about an hour to get to the conference building. It'll last a few hours, probably."

"Are we going with you?" Reagan asked.

He nodded. "Since you're staying here, we decided it would be a good idea to let the others know about the situation. Even though they may have seen you at the last meeting, you were never formally introduced. Since we tend to do a lot together it would be best if you were all at least acquainted."

The girls nodded in understanding while Sam gave a slightly wary look.

"Will we have to sit in that room the entire time or can we wait in the lobby?"

"I suppose you can choose whatever you want. When it's time to introduce you I could just call you in."

"That works. I'd rather not sit in there while y'all discuss any of the serious shazz," she admitted as she closed her eyes. "That is if you even get to the serious stuff."

He huffed a bit, painfully aware of what her last statement implied. Too often the meetings usually spiraled out of control. Very little seemed to get done sometimes.

"It's getting late, I'm off to bed," Arthur said as he got to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm beat," Sam yawned. Everyone walked up the stairs together then parted ways at the top after exchanging goodnights. It had become almost habitual by now.

When the girls wandered into their room and closed the door, Sam flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling for a minute or two. Reagan and Corytha exchanged a glance, knowing she was probably about to speak. About what? They had no idea.

"You know, it may be strange to say, but… I'm almost glad England's spell messed up," she said. "Look at how amazing this has been, and it's hardly been a week! And soon Italy wants to have us over. I'm not even sad that we'll miss the beginning of college."

Reagan shrugged, sitting down next to her while Corytha climbed under her own sheets.

"I can see your point," she said. "This has been really fun so far. I'm nervous about him introducing us at the meeting, though."

"I'm excited about that," Sam piped up, turning on her side to face them with a cheeky grin. "Once the others know we'll be here for a while, they might want to have us over too! Or at least talk to us or something. Think about how many of them we could end up being friends with!"

"I'm curious to see what they'll say when they see us the next time. I mean last time all we did was walk dumbfounded out of the room, so the only ones who really know us now are the Axis powers and England."

"Maybe they'll debate on having us stay at other houses," Sam laughed, kind of thrilled at the idea. "I'm not sure I want to be moving around too much, we finally got settled here!"

"But what if you were invited to stay with Spain or Germany or something? You can't tell me you wouldn't want to go for at least a few days!"  
"Look, I'm just saying don't expect them to get all excited just because a couple of humans are here from another world for a little while. They're busy people, I'm sure."

"Hah, wanna bet?"

Corytha listened to her friends go back and forth for a while, trying to block out the various thoughts and possibilities that often swarmed her mind when she was tired. Then a light ping caught her attention and she unlocked her phone to find a text had been sent from Italy. She bit the inside of her lip and opened her messages.

* * *

Feliciano: "Ciao, bella~! How have you been? :D"

Corytha: "Hi Feli! I've been fine. Arthur's been showing us around the past few days."

Feliciano: "Si, Reagan's told me! Are you having fun? :)"

Corytha: "Lots! (= We even went to Stonehenge, it was really cool."

Feliciano: "That's great! ^-^"

Corytha: "What have you been up to?"

Feliciano: "Same as usual, but Germany made me train more today and now I'm really tired Dx"

Corytha: "Aww, are you okay?"

Feliciano: "I'm fine~! He let me make lots of pasta when we were done! :D"

Corytha: "Haha, well that's good."

Feliciano: "What are your friends up to? :o"

Corytha: "They're talking about the meeting in two days, since we're going too apparently."

Feliciano: "Oh yeah, the meeting! I almost forgot about that~"

Corytha: "Yup. They're pretty excited to see everyone and see what happens."

Feliciano: "What about you? :D"

Corytha: "Um, alright I guess. Kind of nervous though…"

Feliciano: "Aww, but why? D: It will be fun!"

Corytha: "I'm not good with large groups of people, really…"

Feliciano: "It'll be fine~! I'm sure they'll be happy to meet you! :D You're really nice!"

Corytha: "/ Thanks. Still going to be nervous though, haha."

Feliciano: "Well we'll just find a way to make you un-nervous~! :D It'll be great!"

Feliciano: "I'm getting kind of sleepy, so I'm going to bed. Ciao, bella~! See you soon! \\(^-^)/"

Corytha: "Goodnight! (^-^)/"

* * *

She sighed and turned off her phone for the time being as she set it on the nightstand. At first she wasn't aware of the silence in the room until she looked over and found her friends looking at her curiously.

"Who was that?" Sam asked.

"I-Italy texted me," Corytha said, not sure why they were giving her such expressions.

"Oh. Well anyway, we were going to ask you, Cori… are you alright with all of this?"

The blonde tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows.

"What?"

"What she means is, you've been pretty quiet this entire time," Reagan said with a soft expression. "I mean sure you've spoken up a few times, but mostly you look like you're off in your own world."

Oh. That.

"You know I think a lot," she reasoned quietly. "I'm still trying to get used to this I guess."

"Is there something specific that's bothering you?" Reagan asked.

"...I guess I'm just not too excited about the meeting," she admitted. "You guys are all happy but… I just don't want anything weird to happen, I don't know. You know how they can be in the show…"

"They may be a bit extravagant sometimes, but they wouldn't do anything to hurt us," Sam said. "Look, England is going to work on a way to send us home. We won't be here for that long and they have more important things to do than mess with teenage girls, if that's what you're afraid of."

"Yeah, and besides, most of them are nice," Reagan added. "Nothing bad is going to happen."

"...Can you promise me that?" Corytha asked, fixing them with a steady stare.

"We promise!" they said in unison.

 _I hope you're right,_ the blonde thought to herself. She wasn't quite convinced.

* * *

On the day of the meeting, the girls tried to pick their nicest outfits out of what they'd bought. England had recommended it to set a good impression, though he'd also said to not worry about looking formal. Sam ended up in dark jeans, a long sleeved white shirt and a black vest. She'd gotten a black flat cap for added pizzazz. Reagan wore white skinny jeans and a green top with criss-crossing straps in the back that read 'If I can't take my book, I'm not going' on the front with an image of glasses on the bottom, along with a floral dark green scarf. The sleeves were long enough that they nearly covered her hands but instead cut off halfway at her palms. Corytha went with maroon skinny jeans and her cream middle-sleeved top that hung loosely around her form. She added a scarf to the mix that had shades of red and brown.

Arthur had purposely waited until they would be one of the last groups inside so that the girls wouldn't be pestered until the end of the meeting. They made their way to the top floor where he told them to sit tight in the waiting room for a while. There was no telling how long they would have to wait there, so they set out as soon as he left to find things to occupy them.

Luckily they'd gotten a few things for their personal enjoyment on the day they'd gone shopping. If they were going to be here for several months, they couldn't spend their lazy days just scrolling about on their phones. Reagan had snagged a few books to read- nearly an entire series because it was on sale- and Sam had manga along with the music on her iphone. After a while she had turned on the television just to see what was on. Corytha had a sketchbook and a pencil and was content to sketch some animals while they waited.

She was in the middle of her fifth sketch- a howling wolf- when one of the doors opened. They all stopped what they were doing and turned to see England and Japan standing there with Germany looking on from behind them in the room.

"It's time, girls."

Quickly they all stuffed their things into Reagan's large satchel and got to their feet. As they approached the door Corytha could feel her heartbeat ready to pop out of her chest from the anxiety- it only stopped climbing when Reagan gripped her hand and squeezed it tightly, giving her a knowing look out of the corner of her eye along with a smile. She tried to return it, but couldn't be certain it showed.

They all stepped into the room where Germany beckoned them over to the head of the table so everyone could see them. The room wasn't quite as daunting as they'd remembered, but it was just as crowded with the personifications of countries. Judging by the papers scattered about the floor that a select few of them were picking up as well as chairs that were turned over, the meeting had progressed in typical Hetalia fashion.

Italy spun over to them quickly and shook each of their hands rapidly, telling them hello about a dozen times. Corytha stared on in frozen shock while Reagan giggled and said it was nice to see him. Sam just glared lightly after a short while and yanked her arm away.

"Italy, go sit down," Germany demanded quietly. The Italian slipped away as if he hadn't just interrupted something and plopped back down in his seat. The people who had been going around straightening the mess were also back to their chairs, so Germany decided to begin.

"As you all may remember, these girls showed up at the last meeting when England's spell went wrong. They are now settled at his house and will be here for at least the next six months. Considering this is an unusual situation, it's been decided that they should be acquainted with everyone here. They already know who we are because in their world, we're a television show, according to Japan. So to not waste time, instead they will just introduce themselves."

He motioned to them so they would take the hint. Reagan lightly gulped, not used to speaking in front of so many people. Sure they'd had projects in school, but even then the presentations were in front of less than twenty people. Good thing she wasn't too shy when it came to meeting new people.

"I'm Reagan Dutois," she said clearly, holding her wrist behind her back with a polite smile. She wasn't sure if there was anything else they were supposed to say, so she looked at Germany and he just shrugged. "Um… we're all 18, and we just finished high school. We're also from America, specifically Colorado."

"Whoo! The Rockies!" America cheered from his seat. Germany glared at him sharply and he grumbled something but stopped anyway.

Reagan lightly smiled then looked at her friends. It was their turn. Sam perked up quickly and folded her arms over her chest, looking around the room with her emerald eyes before clearing her throat.

"Samantha Overby," she stated simply. "But you can just call me Sam."

Both of them- as well as the others in the room who were miraculously still silent- turned their gazes on Corytha. Inside the blonde panicked and lost control of her vocal chords briefly, the anxiety showing clearly on her face.

"I-I… um…" she gulped, holding her elbows as a means of holding herself while she glanced down. "C-Co _rytha Foster_ -!"

Sam had jabbed her in the side with her elbow, causing the blonde's voice to rise to where everyone could hear it. Face flushing from embarrassment, she shot Sam an unamused look, to which the redhead only beamed. The blonde huffed lightly but said nothing more. Reagan just giggled.

"There we have it then," Germany said, surprised no one had started talking again yet. Maybe they were all just done with the meeting and wanted to leave. "Are there any questions?"

At first Sam mentally pouted, somewhat disappointed that nothing had been said to them yet. The only one who had even piped up had been America. She supposed maybe Reagan was right, and that them being random humans was probably nothing of interest.

That was until Italy raised his hand.

"Yes, Italy?"  
"Ve~ So when can the girls come over to my place~?" he asked innocently. His question sparked a mass debate no one was expecting.

"Hey, if England and Italy get to show them around then they should come spend time with me too!" France challenged.

"It would be lots of fun to have the chicas to my place too! Wouldn't it Romano?" Spain asked with a cheerful expression. The latter looked done with life with his head stuffed into his arms on the table.

"Don't drag me into this, you bastard!"

"They should stop by my place too!"

"No way, my place is way more exciting!"

From there it seems like a trigger was pulled and suddenly a good portion of them were arguing about where the girls should go visit in their brief time here. Any semblance of calm and disinterest were quickly wiped away as the debating escalated, and the girls shuffled off to the side to be out of the way.

"Well that escalated quickly," Sam remarked, looking around in confusion. "They didn't seem to give two shits a few moments ago!"

"That's because I was keeping them in line," Germany said, inserting himself into the conversation. "Even the first time, they did something like this while you were out. I had to convince them it wouldn't be wise to crowd you when you would most likely be confused."

"To be honest, a lot of them were arguing over where you girls should stay. Germany got them to be quiet while I finally said I would take you in, but then they started scolding me. That's when you woke up," England explained. They'd formed their own circle off to the side while the debate continued behind them all.

Sam grinned. "So they _DID_ give two shits about us!"

"One way or another, I suppose," Japan said.

Reagan laughed a bit and glanced around. "I guess that's good? But why does it matter so much? We're just some random teenagers."

"It's not often that we meet girls such as yourselves, especially not under the circumstances of you knowing who we really are," Germany explained. "Most of them would jump at the chance to meet someone new for once and show them around, since we're all well acquainted."

"I guess that makes sense…" she mused, though she was still confused. "But isn't there something against befriending humans?"

Germany glanced between England and Japan before one of them decided to answer her question.

"Due to the fact you girls won't be here forever," England started, "The typical rules we may have regarding humans don't exactly apply."

"Oh, because we won't be around to cause you any pain down the road?" Sam asked, tilting her head.

"Exactly. Though it may still pain us to know that's inevitably how your lives will end, it won't be the same as having to watch you grow old. So most of them are excited at the chance to befriend you for memory's sake."

"Alright, that makes sense," Reagan nodded, finally coming to terms with it. It was almost a relief that their situation was what made them befriendable in the first place. She could understand their unspoken policy about humans though. Being immortal as they practically were, it would be painful to befriend people again and again only to watch them grow old and pass away. After a while it could almost feel like torment. She would be glad to give them a good experience instead.

"Yo! Britain!"

The group finally broke up to see the room full of unspoken anticipation. America was at his feet, sending the Brit a particularly frustrated stare.

"So what's the dealio? Can they visit or not?"

"America… we live in America," Sam said dully. "Of all places to go, yours will definitely not be first."

He pouted at this comment while some of the others snickered triumphantly. Sam glared in their general direction. "And if y'all make this difficult, I will keep tabs on you and we won't visit you either."

They shut up quickly.

"Of course they can visit, you git! I'm not going to confine them to my house," England snapped back. "They can go wherever they want to as far as I'm concerned."

"Great! Then the chicas can come stay at my place for a few days, si?" Spain beamed.

"They could come stay with me for a little while, if they want to, eh…"

"Did someone say something just then?"

While the talking started to break out again, a figure appeared behind the girls and nearly dwarfed them entirely. One hand clapped Reagan on the shoulder while the other met with Sam. It was lucky positioning for Corytha, who would have panicked at the contact. They all froze and glanced over their shoulders.

"They could come stay with me, da?"

Reagan and Sam gave Russia nervous smiles. The tall man was smiling innocently with his eyes closed. They couldn't tell if he had a dark aura or not. Corytha remained still in the center, staring ahead while her friends dealt with the attention.

"Look, I'm sorry to break this to everyone," Sam said suddenly, holding her hands up defensively. "But we've already kinda got plans to visit Italy next week? So if you want to decide where we should go after that, you'll have to figure that out for yourselves."

Since everyone only seemed to continue to argue, Sam face-palmed and dragged a hand down her face. She glared through her fingers and cast a glance to Germany.

"How do you put up with this?" she said in a low voice.

He only shook his head. He wasn't even sure if he _did_ put up with it.

"Wait~! I have an idea!" Italy piped up excitedly with his usual smile. Shockingly the countries stopped only for a moment to see what the idea was, although they probably expected nothing of value.

"Everyone who wants to have them over could put their name into something~! Then we can pull a name out to decide where they go!"

"That's actually not a bad idea. Good job, Italy," Japan commented thoughtfully from the sidelines. "Of course the girls would have to agree with that plan."

Sam shrugged. "Fine by me."

"Same here," Reagan smiled.

Corytha just glanced to her friends then murmured something inaudible, but she seemed to accept it. That was enough.

"Alright then, everyone needs to decide who they want over. Next meeting we will do the draw. Since they only have six months here, their visits will be limited to ten days, and if anything goes wrong they will be sent back to England's house. Is that clear?"

After a unanimous agreement on the minor conditions, the meeting was dismissed and everyone readied themselves to leave. While a few of the countries left, it seemed some of them decided to linger and talk to the girls individually out in the waiting room. Corytha lingered near Reagan as she spoke with Spain and France for a short while. Sam was talking to Germany until America came over and disrupted their conversation. Everything was basically happening in a blur around Corytha as a multitude of people were walking around, snagging refreshments off the counters and talking amongst themselves. At least the attention wasn't focused on them anymore.

Suddenly she felt a light tap on her shoulder and she flinched lightly before turning around. When she saw who it was, any sense of fear she'd previously had nearly disappeared.


	5. Chapter 5- Lots of New Faces

Liechtenstein was standing there with a curious expression on her face. The two stared at each other for a few moments, as though mesmerized because of how similar they were. Corytha was taller, and her hair was wavy while her eyes were blue. Otherwise they were quite similar.

"Hey Miss Corytha," she said lightly, beginning to smile a bit. "You look a lot like me."

Corytha blinked then shook her head to clear her daze and returned the smile.

"Yeah, I guess we do look kind of similar, huh."

 _Not to mention we're both pretty quiet,_ she thought.

"I wonder what else we have in common," Liechtenstein wondered aloud, looking down in thought. "Maybe we can get together some time… would you want to?"

"Yeah, that sounds like fun," Corytha replied with a slightly bigger smile. If there was anyone here she would feel at ease with, Liechtenstein was one of them.

"Big brother would be happy if I made a new friend," the girl said with another smile at the thought. "He's probably waiting for me downstairs, so I have to go now. It was nice meeting you!"

"Same to you!"

Before she left, she seemed to remember something and asked if Corytha wanted to exchange numbers, which they did. Afterwards she hurried down the stairs to find Switzerland.

Reagan walked over and handed her back her sketchbook in case she wanted to work in it more. Since the Allied and Axis powers were staying until everyone else left, she wasn't sure when they'd be leaving. They sat down on the couch while Corytha started to continue her wolf sketch before a pair of familiar faces showed up again.

"Oh, wow! That's a really nice drawing, chica!"  
She jumped and quickly turned her head to find Spain leaning on the back of the couch with his chin resting on his arms. He beamed at her.

"H-Hi, um… thanks?" she said awkwardly while Reagan kept an eye on things from the sidelines. She wanted her friend to start talking a bit more. If she didn't at least try, she'd stay stuck in a shell until the day they left. It would be a good opportunity for her to work on her people skills.

"Do you have more drawings in there?"

"Yeah, just a few…"

"Mind if I look?"

She handed him her sketchbook and sat there in silence as he browsed through the first few pages. To her dismay, he waved for France's attention, and the flamboyant country came over instantly.

"Check out these drawings! She's quite the artist, yeah?"

France took the book and flipped through the pages with a neutral expression. Corytha wanted to crawl into a corner, seeing as he was probably well aware of what good art should actually look like. All she did was pencil sketches. To her surprise though, he smiled by the end and handed it carefully back to her so as to not bend the pages and winked.

"I would certainly say so," he said in reply to Spain's earlier comment. Her face flushed lightly from embarrassment while she looked away.

"Th-Thanks," she murmured.

"Do you like animals a lot?" Spain asked.

She nodded.

"What's your favorite?"

"Probably wolves," she admitted shyly, "They're interesting… and beautiful."

She'd unintentionally used the trigger word. To her surprise, France took her hand and bent over slightly to better see her face as he spoke next. Inwardly she was recoiling a thousand miles away.

"But not quite as beautiful as you, non?"

Heavily flustered, she merely blinked, staring at him blankly.

"U-Um…"

"Even if my name is not pulled at the next meeting, would you still do me the pleasure of visiting me sometime, mademoiselle? It would certainly make my day~"

Not used to this sort of attention whatsoever, the blonde continued to stare dumbly at him, as though trying to figure out if there was some sort of hidden meaning to his words. Knowing his flirtatious nature she could only hope he just meant it in a genuine way rather than the potential former. No, in fact, it was impossible for it to be.

"I… I suppose, if there's time…" she finally stuttered out, retrieving her hand from his hold and clutching it in her lap.

"Haha, chica your face is starting to turn red like a tomato! It reminds me of Romano…"

"Leave me out of this, you bastard!"

Corytha looked down quickly from her growing embarrassment over the attention of the two males. To her dismay, yet another one popped up next to the arm of the couch.

"If she goes to France's house then all of us need to hang out!"

She jerked up at the slightly rough voice of Prussia. When he had even shown up, no one could be certain, but he hadn't been in the meeting room, that much she could remember.

"Si, we haven't hung out for a while, have we?" Spain noted thoughtfully.

"It's settled then! Whenever Corytha goes over, all of us will be there!" Prussia announced, beginning to grin. "Then she can see what awesomeness really looks like!"

"Some things never change," France mused, though he was honestly up for the idea. While the supposed 'Bad Touch Trio' started to laugh and exchange words over her head, she sat there awkwardly in silence, unsure of what to make of the whole thing. Of all groups to be noticed by, why did it have to be the flirtatious, somewhat careless bunch? Their personalities were fine, but for someone as reserved and shy as she usually was, it was a severely uncomfortable situation. Especially if she ended up over there alone somehow.

 _N-No way, I will not be with them alone, Sam and Reagan wouldn't let that happen,_ she reasoned with herself in her concern. She was mostly disappointed that they would trouble themselves with her instead of Sam. Why her, of the three of them? She wanted to disappear right now.

Little did the blonde know that in the distance, Sam was beside herself with laughter while she spoke with Germany and Japan.

"When did my brother get here?" Germany grumbled to himself, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Sam, please excuse my question, but why are you laughing?" Japan asked the redhead. She was struggling to hold in her amusement right now with tears on the edge of her eyes.

"I-It's just really funny," she finally managed to say as she wiped beneath her eye with a finger, "That Corytha is the one they seem to be interested in…"

"Why is that?" asked Germany.

"Because she's basically the most reserved person I've ever met… and shy… and she has the personal space bubble of at least a mile. Think of it this way: it's like Japan, except three times worse."

"Three times?!" Japan exclaimed.

"Mein gott…" Germany sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Their reactions having realized what the blonde's dilemma most likely was only caused Sam to start laughing again, her shoulders shaking like a small earthquake.

Meanwhile back in Corytha's predicament, she glanced over to Reagan, who gave her a small smile.

'Help me!' the blonde mouthed to her with wide eyes. Her friend only shrugged with an amused smile.

'You're fine!' she mouthed back. Corytha pouted. Then her vision was suddenly blocked by a certain albino's face.

"So, frau, do you have a phone number or something?" he asked bluntly. Apparently it had been decided that they wanted to keep in contact with her. Great. She looked away from his piercing eyes and was about to reply when a light weight settled on her right shoulder. Her gaze turned to find Gilbird, a small yellow bird, perched there. He stared at her almost in wonder for a moment or two until Prussia seemed to snap out of a daze.

"Ohhh," he slowly said in shock. "If Gilbird likes you, that's good enough for me. What is your number?!"

He quickly flipped out his own phone and began to open a new contact.

"W-Well…" she pulled out her own phone, upon which the Prussian snatched it from her hands and opened up her information to find her number and put it into his own- while adding his, of course. Her phone went around to Spain and finally France who handed it back to her. Gilbird went back and sat on top of Prussia's head.

"It was nice meeting you~!" Spain said with his usual smile as he got up. "I'm going to head on home now though, so I'll talk to you later, okay?"

After the spaniard left, Prussia started to ramble about the things they could do when they visited when Corytha spotted a certain someone at a distance. She would recognize the gentle face and blue clothes from anywhere. It was Finland, and to her surprise, he was looking back in her direction. He seemed to notice her gaze and smiled, waving at her. When she smiled back shyly at him, he seemed to notice the strain in it and began to motion in a way that was almost like silent language between them.

'You okay over there?'

'Kind of stuck…'

'Why don't you come over here?'

'I'll try, I guess.'

With an escape route and destination in mind- and as excuse to leave- the timid girl forced herself to her feet and held her sketchbook close to her chest in a protective manner as she addressed them.

"I have to go, i-it was nice to meet you," she said somewhat quietly. It was loud enough for them to hear. Before they could reply she weaved away from them and quickly made her way around the room and over to the corner where Finland was waiting with a sweet smile on his face that somehow made her anxiousness lighten up in a heartbeat.

"Hello there!" he said cheerfully.

"Hi," she said.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just not used to attention like that," she explained shyly.

"I can understand. Plus you're in a new place, so it must be a bit daunting for you."

She just nodded, somewhat surprised at his clear understanding of her feelings. He was the first to really acknowledge her nervousness about being here.

"Anyway, you might know me already, but I'm Finland! Corytha Foster, right?"

"Yup," she smiled, slowly starting to regain her composure.

"It's nice to meet you," he replied. "You can call me Timo or Finny… or whatever works for you, really!"

"Cori would be fine for me, if you want, that is…"

"Okay! Your full name is really pretty though, I have to admit."

She flushed slightly at the compliment and had a flashback to when Italy said something similar.

"Thanks."

"Would you mind if I asked what your middle name was?"

"Oh, it's Gardenia," she replied.

"Wow! That's awesome!"

She nearly beamed at his uplifting attitude. It was a different kind of contagious happiness in comparison to Italy's. While Italy did manage to make her laugh via text sometimes, his was a more careless, nearly oblivious joy that made her happy merely for his sake. But for some reason Finland's happiness made her want to feel happy, too.

"Hn?"

Both of them paused at the sound of another voice. Finland and Corytha both turned their attention to the side and saw Sweden standing there with his usual expression, having evidently just walked up on Finland's comment.

"Her middle name is Gardenia! Isn't that cool?"

It seemed he had grown mostly oblivious to the other country's serious outer appearance. Corytha on the other hand was tempted to shake lightly but tried hard not to show it for his sake, given that she knew he was just bad in social situations… probably like she was, if not slightly worse.

"...Yes, it is," he finally said after a moment. The girl released a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"It's nothing special," she attempted to salvage the conversation that seemed ready to end already.

"Well it suits you, that's for sure!" Finland continued. "So are you excited to visit Italy soon?"

"Yeah, it should be a lot of fun, I haven't done much traveling in my lifetime."

"Where all have you been?"

"Other than England this past week? Um… t-two states in America," she mumbled, scratching at the back of her head. Finland nearly exclaimed in surprise.

"Oh, you really haven't done much traveling, then!"

Her face flushed lightly in embarrassment. "I haven't really had any opportunities to..."

"You can do plenty while you're here now, though!" Finland smiled. "Maybe you can even stay with us for a little while!"

"I-I wouldn't want to impose," she started to reason when another voice cut into the mix.

"Ah, nonsense! If you want to come over, you should! It would be fun!"

She turned to the side as Denmark walked over. Him and Sweden both were several inches taller than her. She nearly wanted to shrink on the spot. He was giving her both a curious and an excited look, and for once she could finally fully understand why people in her world referred to him as a puppy.

"Yeah! We haven't had a visitor ourselves for a long time," Finland agreed heartily. "Would you want to come over?"

"Of course I would, but-"

"But nothing, then! We'll make it happen!" Denmark beamed and flashed her a quick thumbs up.

"Th-That's awfully kind of you… if it's no trouble, that is," she replied.

"It's no trouble at all! Right, Norge?" Denmark said, clapping the usually silent man on the shoulder as he stopped nearby. Iceland came around on his other side and gave Corytha a silent look before turning his gaze away. The girl couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed with the five of them all around her. She knew they weren't necessarily a danger to her though, compared to some of the other countries. They tended to mind themselves.

For several moments, Norway's eyes were locked on her own in some sort of silent examination. What he was thinking, the girl had no idea, but she knew there were gears turning behind those seemingly dull blue orbs. After a while she averted her gaze to keep herself from feeling overwhelmed. Often times when she felt she was being analyzed, she couldn't help but feel insecure and almost vulnerable to some extent. It was quite frankly terrifying.

"...If she would like to visit, she is welcome."

Her gaze flicked up again at his words. Though his expression remained neutral, he seemed to barely tilt his chin down in acknowledgement. Sweden seemed to give his own grunt of approval and a nod agreeing with Norway's statement.

"What about you, Ice?" Finland asked the last of the Nordics. He glanced over at her again and eventually shrugged.

"...I guess, I don't see why not…"

"There, five out of five!" Denmark laughed triumphantly,

"...Though it may be trouble for her with you around," Norway commented dryly towards the oddly excited Dane.

"Eh?! Aw c'mon, what are you saying?"

Before he could try to make some smart remark, Sweden cleared his throat and caught their attention.

"It's getting late. We should go," he stated simply.

"Finally," Iceland murmured to himself. He'd been ready to leave for a while now.

"Oh, alright," Finland said. He turned to face Corytha with a big smile, pleased that it seemed everyone would be willing to have her over. "We should definitely stay in touch! Would you want my number?"  
"Hey, let me get yours too!" Denmark said as both of them pulled out their phones.

 _Is this a common occurrence?_ The girl wondered as she let them add themselves into her phone. It seemed slightly odd to her that so many have them had so readily requested her number to talk later. Either people communicated over phone a lot more here or somehow they really did consider her a potential friend of some sort.

Denmark handed her back her phone and gave her a wicked grin before waving goodbye and following the rest of them, with Finland close behind.

"Goodbye Cori!" he called.

"Bye, Fin!"

As soon as the nordics had left, Sam came sauntering over and flung an arm over the blonde's shoulders carelessly with a smirk.

"Sooo~" she sang lightly, giving her friend a sly glance. "Making some friends, are we?"

Corytha rolled her eyes and shrugged off Sam's arm.

"It's not like I tried to, they approached me!"

"I don't care, you talked to guys on your own today! I'm so proud of you!" the redhead pinched her cheek and she quickly swiped her hands away, scowling and rubbing at her face now.

"Hey! You can be a part of me and Reagan's competition now!" Sam suddenly said, clapping her hands together.

"Um… what?"

"You know, our texting competition!" she beamed.

"...Goody me," she said in monotone.

"Don't sound so excited," Sam replied sarcastically.

"What are you kids up to?" Reagan said, smiling as she walked over with the few remaining countries. At this point it was only England, Germany, Italy and Japan. Everyone else had left. After talking for little over an hour by now it had gone dark outside.

"Just chatting," Sam grinned, giving her blonde friend one last sinister smirk. Corytha just glared back, unamused with the teasing. It's not like she chose for them to talk to her, she had no choice! And besides, it wasn't easy in the slightest. Especially not for her.

"I think we'll be on our way shortly," England said, slightly surprised that Cori could muster up a glare like that.

"Alright."

"I think I have all our things… Corytha, do you still have your sketchbook?'

"Yeah," she said, her expression softening to look more tired now than anything. She handed the book to Reagan so she could stash it away into her satchel.

"So did you girls have fun meeting everybody~?" Italy asked in a cheerful voice.

"Hells yeah!" Sam beamed. "It was just as hectic as I thought it would be!"

Germany sighed, mumbling something about how it was 'unfortunately so.'

"Everyone is just like they are in the show," Reagan laughed, shaking her head a bit as she remembered some of the antics she'd already witnessed.

"I wish I could meet anime characters…" Japan thought aloud, somewhat envious of their position, though at the same time he could only imagine what homesickness they might feel since it had been unexpected.

"This definitely isn't quite as difficult as I thought it might be by now," England said. "What with everyone being so optimistic about it. But I have started researching for the spell to send you girls back. Taking the notes from the spell that brought you here, it'll take some tweaking to make sure I get the right universe again."

"The only reason _we're_ optimistic is because things can't get any worse," Sam said bluntly. "We just have to wait, and now we get to go sightseeing. Though I'm actually shocked so many of them actually seem to want us over."

"That is likely because this is such a rare opportunity. None of us typically get to show someone around who hasn't been to our countries before, especially not humans. And you know our identities, so there's no point in hiding ourselves."

"I agree," Japan added with a nod. "Getting a chance to actually meet someone new and show them around does not happen often. It's much like getting refreshed with a new friend after a long time."

"When you put it like that, I guess it does make more sense," Reagan thought, glancing up towards the ceiling as she usually did. "Actually, I think we talked about this before too."

England nodded. "Your first morning here, I think we did."

Sam huffed a bit in laughter. "It seems like we keep repeating a lot of the same conversations, to be honest. We gotta move past this, it's kinda old news, to be fair."

"Right," Germany nodded. "We should move on instead of lingering at the start of things."

"See? He gets it."

As the conversation drew to a close, a yawn forced its way out of Corytha's lungs. She fought to contain it but only ended up covering her mouth with a hand, turning away to shield her face from their direct view. Italy appeared next to her and patted her on the shoulder.

"Ve~ You seem really tired, bella~! Did you sleep last night?"

She nodded and rubbed at the space below her eye for a moment.

"I-I'm fine…"

"She just gets worn out pretty fast when there's a lot of people around," Reagan explained with a sympathetic smile to her introverted friend.

"I know how that feels," Japan mused, himself not too fond of large gatherings for excessive periods of time.

"Let's head back," England finally stated.

* * *

After they'd finally gotten back to England's house and readied themselves for bed, silence fell between them. It wasn't even too late yet, but the day had-for some reason- left them feeling quite exhausted. Perhaps it was being surrounded by so many powerful people that had drained them. Or, more realistically, it was the meet-and-greet they'd basically had for over an hour following their introductions that did the trick. Either way, a lot had happened in a short amount of time, and they were now familiar with most of the characters they had come to know in the show.

"Is anyone else already getting messages?" Sam said, blinking as two messages appeared in her notifications at once.

"I told them I was going to sleep," Reagan mumbled with her face stuffed into the pillow.

Corytha on the other hand…

"Six of them got my number today…. Three of them stole it…"

She had three new messages and didn't know who was who. All of the numbers said unknown, although based on how they texted, she was tempted to guess.

* * *

Unknown: "Hey! Just checking to see if you got back to England's house okay c:"

Corytha: "Yup, I did (= May I ask who this is?"

Unknown: "Take a guess :D"

Corytha: "Finland?"

Finland: "Haha, darn. That was easier than I thought!"

Corytha: "xD"

Finland: "Feeling better now without everyone around?"

Corytha: "A little bit. I get worn out with too many people."

Finland: "I understand. A lot of them are good in small doses :P"

Corytha: "Haha, yeah."

Finland: "I'll let you get some rest c: Oh, and Denmark wants me to tell you hello!"

Corytha: "Tell him I said hi ^-^ Goodnight!"

Finland: "Will do- Night! :D"

* * *

Unknown: "You there chica? :)"

Unknown: "you'd better be :D"

Corytha: "I'm assuming this is Spain and Prussia; is this a group chat?"

Prussia: "damn right it is!"

Spain: "France went to sleep but he's in it too"

Corytha: "Alrighty then..."

Spain: "Did you have fun today?"

Corytha: "I guess so. It was okay."

Prussia: "of course she had fun, she got to meet us! right frau?"

Spain: "Haha :D"

* * *

To her dismay, the two of them continued to ramble back and forth to each other about things that she wasn't exactly a part of. She figured there was really no point for her to be watching this right now, especially since her friends were heading to bed early, and she needed to catch up on some rest too. She waited for several minutes but didn't see any breaks in their texting during that time, until finally she decided it was pointless to wait. She'd have to just intervene.

* * *

Corytha: "I'm off to bed now… just letting you know."

Prussia: "what already?"

Corytha: "It's been a long day."

Prussia: "but we just started talking! c'mon..."

Spain: "Let the chica get some rest, amigo, she deserves it"

Corytha: "Sorry but I'm tired. And thank you, Spain."

Spain: "Anytime :)"

Prussia: "bah, fine. but I reserve the right to text you constantly tomorrow!"

Corytha: "Um, okay then. Well goodnight."

Prussia: "HAH! then I even have your permission! OK in that case gute nacht and sweet dreams!"

Spain: "Buenas noches! ^-^/"

* * *

She cracked a bit of a smile at their last words before shaking her head and turning off her phone for the evening. It was much easier talking to everyone over text for her than it usually ended up being in person. She had her shyness to thank for that. Plus over text she didn't stutter or feel ill at ease with a physical presence, it was just words on a screen. Anyone who texted her enough would probably come to feel that she could be a completely different person online than she was in reality.

The lights had been turned off already, so she snuggled up under the blanket and stared at the ceiling, wondering if her friends had already drifted off to sleep. Sam shifted around a few times on the other side of the room, so she decided they weren't.

"Goodnight guys," she murmured, keeping her voice low in case she was wrong.

"Night Cori."

"Night!"

With the day finally drawing to its conclusion, she turned to face the wall and stared into the darkness for a short while. It was little over a week now, and soon they'd be traveling to even more places that she never would have imagined they'd see. She was excited. But being honest with herself, she was also quite nervous. England was working on the spell and it would take some time before any updates could be given. The girl couldn't help but imagine them back at home, excited for college and with a life ahead of them. Her dreams of making something of herself and proving she was capable… all of that was put on hold while they were here. Her friends may have been able to calm down about the incident, but her anxiety wouldn't allow her to not worry about the possibility that this could take longer than planned… or what if the spell didn't work, and they could never go back?

 _Don't think like that!_ She scolded herself quickly. _Go to sleep Corytha, you're tired._

Forcing the concerns from her consciousness, she allowed herself to drift off to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6- Nightmares

_At first it was nothing but a vague image. A faint blending of colors and sound that she couldn't decipher around her. It was like being adrift at sea, with her vision fading in and out and only being slightly aware of any physical sensation._

 _Gradually the pounding of her head and her heart eased, and her sight cleared to reveal a familiar room bathed in red. The open window revealed what seemed to be a full moon, but even the night sky itself was a deep maroon. She couldn't convince her feet to move. It was as if her muscles had decided to shut down, so she was left to sit upon the floor. Silence was all she could hear other than a distant creaking of the old house she'd lived in for years now. Anything she'd once known had been washed away thanks to this place, and staying here had left her with an emptiness that she doubted could ever be filled again._

 _Suddenly a chill entered the room and dug down into her bones, setting her into a light tremble. Just outside the door she could hear it. Footsteps. Making their way upstairs and around the corner, then down the hall… towards her._

It can't be, _she thought desperately._ He's in prison…

 _The steps ceased right outside her door._

 _Then, the door opened._

 _To her dismay they continued slowly around the bed. Each elongated movement drove the terror home until the dark silhouette of an unrecognizable figure had paused before her, a long slender object glinting in its undefined hands._

 _For several moments nothing happened. The only thing she could feel was an absence of anything but horror at the black pits for eyes that had locked with her own. Slowly her surroundings became obscure to her until all she could distinguish was the dark figure against a bloody red background. As red as the blood that she felt dripping down her skin…_

 _The dark figure hissed and lurched forward, hitting her in the chest with a crushing force that sent her crashing into the wall behind her. It felt like an anvil had been thrown into her ribcage. Then a searing pain like lightning shot through her veins, and she opened her mouth in a silent scream._

Help, _she thought, her own voice drowned out by a screaming in her head._

" _ **BITCH!"**_

" _ **HELP!"**_

* * *

Corytha shot up in bed quickly, pupils contracted as her lungs heaved air in and out of her system. A cold sweat coated her back and left her shaking under the soft sheets covering her form. Her pulse felt like it was about to jump through her skin.

 _I-I haven't… had that dream in a long time…_ she thought, forcing herself to slow down and take in her surroundings.

She was in a guest bedroom by herself. It had been four days since the meeting, and today, the fifth day, her and her friends were at Italy's house. The soft green theme of the room eased her mind a bit while sunlight came in through a slightly open window, allowing in some fresh air.

The girl turned and shakily got to her feet, bracing herself on a dresser while looking at herself in the mirror. She definitely looked restless, with her hair in knots and eyes bordered with shadow. After fixing herself up as best she could and getting dressed for the day, her heart rate had returned mostly to normal, although the memory of what had happened in the dream was stuck at the forefront of her mind now. Great start to the day.

"Get ahold of yourself," she whispered. "He's in prison… and he's not even in this world!"

Knowing he wasn't even on this planet gave her a little peace of mind. Still, it was difficult to forget the pain she'd felt and the feeling of the knife and the blood…

She mentally slapped herself and shook her head. _Knock it off, you're not helping!_

The door to her room abruptly opened, revealing a certain tired-looking albino in his pajamas.

"What's going on in here?! I heard someone scream like a banshee!" he exclaimed.

They locked gazes for a few moments until he noticed the shadows under her eyes. She couldn't exactly hide those without makeup, which she didn't like, nor did she have.

"Are you okay, frau?" Prussia asked, slight concern on his face.

Over the last few days, the energetic prussian had kept his promise and texted her often- severely so the first day as he'd said he would. Since he was no longer in charge of a country, he had far more free time than anyone else who texted her, and she wasn't exactly busy herself. Though the girl often questioned why he'd texted her since she wasn't much of a talker and he was more enthusiastic than Sam at times. Either way he seemed to consider her as something of a friend now and had come along with Germany when Italy invited them over.

"I-I'm alright," she said, straightening out her shirt. "Just had a bad dream..."

His expression relaxed at her explanation. "Oh, okay. For a moment there it sounded like you were hurt or something!"

She cocked an eyebrow at his words. "It took you over five minutes to come see if I was hurt?"

He rubbed the back of his head and gave her a cheesy grin. "For a moment I thought I imagined it, plus no one was moving, but then I remembered I was the only one left upstairs who could have heard."

"I guess everyone is downstairs then," she noted, attempting to change the conversation.

"Yeah, they all left for breakfast half an hour ago."

"Why are you still up here?" she asked as they headed out of her room.

"I wanted to sleep in! You don't achieve this level of awesome without at least eight hours a night!" he claimed, his voice quickly returning to normal. She huffed in amusement but said nothing in return.

Her stutter had only ceased due to the fact she was tired and had the dream on her mind. Otherwise she would have probably been much more timid this morning, especially considering he'd come bursting into her bedroom.

 _I might be really out of it today,_ she thought as they walked into the kitchen.

She found both her friends sitting at the table for breakfast while Italy was making something. Germany sat at the table as well, alongside Japan. Their trip to Italy's country had become a group trip with the Axis powers and Prussia.

"Mornin' Cori!" Sam called as soon as she noticed their entry. The others looked over towards them and she gave a slight nod while Prussia seemingly waltzed in without a care.

"I don't know what's for breakfast, but it smells good! Let me have some!" he demanded as he sat down on the other end of the table. There was one spot left for Corytha, so she hurried over and took a seat beside Reagan.

"Did you sleep okay? You look exhausted," Sam asked as she furrowed her eyebrows. Cori looked at her and smiled.  
"I'm fine, just a bit restless is all. Adjusting to a new place," she tried to explain. Luckily for her, Sam decided not to pry this time around, though Prussia did give her a questioning glance. She kept him quiet with a pleading look of her own. He would definitely be asking about this later.

"We're not doing much today, so you can catch up on sleep tonight," Japan offered with a light smile.

She smiled back but did not say a word. After Italy gave both her and Prussia meals of their own, they dug right in while the others started talking about what they'd be doing. Italy was particularly excited about showing them Florence, Venice, Rome and Naples, some things having been suggested by Reagan. Romano had decided he would not get involved since the 'potato bastard' would be hanging around. Also, to prevent the girls from losing what little they had, Germany would be entrusted with anything they needed to carry, but they'd be leaving their phones in a secret pocket. Germany had gotten each of them a waistband that fit well underneath any shirt they wore. It had a zipper in the front to store smaller objects, so their phones would go in there. It would be impossible for a pickpocket to steal something from there without notice.

After breakfast, while the others left to finish getting ready for the slow-paced trip around the streets and canals of Venice, Corytha remained as Italy started to rapidly discard the dishes into the sink. It seemed as though he wasn't going to mess with washing them yet.

"H-Hey, Feliciano…."

"Ve~ Yes, bella?" he asked, turning to face her with a smile.

"Do you want help with those…?" she asked, pointing to the sink.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it, I'll get to it later! Or Germany will, if he sees them," he said, carefree as usual.

"Are you sure? I don't know if leaving those out like that is a good idea," she said hesitantly, wishing he would just let her clean up the mess.

"Someone like you shouldn't have to mess with it~!" he insisted.

She sighed. She knew he wouldn't change his mind at this point, and since she wasn't Germany, she didn't exactly have the insistence- nor the willpower- to make him. So she sighed in defeat and told him she would go wait for the others instead.

When she got to the living room, sure enough, Prussia was there.

 _Maybe if I go upstairs fast enough…_

"Oh, hey!"

 _Dang it!_ She mentally facepalmed. _Why me?!_

"Hm?" Corytha turned to face him, wishing deeply that her friends would hurry up and come downstairs soon.

"Why did you lie?"

Aaaand there it was. Just as she'd predicted. If there was a reward for predicting things like this, she'd have over a hundred of them by now. Sarcasm aside, she was just glad he'd asked this when no one was around to hear it.

"She pries into things a lot," she attempted to explain. She would have to come up with something believable that gave away nothing of the truth. "One small thing goes wrong and she'd be freaking out, so I try not to tell her much. Same thing with Reagan. They're like… obsessive siblings."

His mouth turned into an 'o' as he nodded his head. Somehow it made perfect sense to him. It was a relief to her, since he didn't have anything else to ask. Maybe he wasn't as talkative in the morning, either. To be honest her entire existence right now felt strange in a way she couldn't quite explain,

No point in bringing it up now though. Her friends were enjoying themselves, and she wouldn't ruin their first day in Italy with her emotional problems. She had done that enough in their own world. The last thing she wanted was to make this trip upsetting for them… after all, this was the stuff of dreams, practically. Sam was enthusiastic about every single day getting to see the countries and explore the world with them as a guide. Same thing with Reagan, who had many questions about their history and culture. Some of it Corytha also found interesting, but the whole situation to her was less of a miracle and more of a temporary fix. She felt stuck. She almost had to wonder how her friends were so drawn into this. How, after even two weeks and soon to be three, had they not gotten used to it or at least lost their luster a bit? Even slightly? Was that just the power of optimism that she so often lacked? She couldn't understand why she was the only one who felt out of place and lost.

"Corytha? Hellooo?"

The blonde snapped out of her daze to find Reagan and Sam staring at her. It seemed they'd been trying to get her attention for the last moment or so. Had it been longer, they would have appeared concerned, so at least that hadn't been the case.

"Hm? Sorry," she pretended to acted surprised and shook her head a bit, giving them an embarrassed grin. "I was thinking again."

"You think too much girl," Sam said, slapping her lightly on the shoulder. "Come on, we're heading out for the day!"

She glanced over to find the others waiting by the door and sighed inwardly.

It was a good thing they were just walking around today.

True to their plans, the day was mostly spent walking around while Germany gave more of a history of the city than Italy did. The Italian man was too busy talking to other girls they passed and pointing out the things they didn't quite care about, such as random stores on the street among other things. He had interesting facts to add here and there, but for the most part, the German did the talking. Sam had a smirk plastered on her face from the amusing turn of events but kept her mouth shut, to her friends' relief.

There was plenty to see, even though their main goal of the day was simply walking the streets. They caught their first glimpse of the Grand Canal and were momentarily in awe of how many boats were drifting along the water. It was a beautiful sight, not to mention the uniqueness of the buildings and the towers they saw around. The square was equally as magnificent, though crowded with tourists and locals alike. Reagan asked about several things they'd walked past.

It was hard for much to get past those ever-watchful eyes of hers, especially when they went somewhere new. She had the keenest gaze of them all.

Sometime later the sun had started to go down and Italy took them to the most renowned gelato stop in the area. Of course, they ended up waiting quite some time before it was their turn, but the wait was well worth it. It tasted amazing and was refreshing after the long day of walking. Prussia ended up with three of them, to his brother's dismay. The rest of them settled for one.

Italy insisted on making dinner instead of them eating out, so it was decided that they would head back to the house for the day, whereupon he set to making one of his favorite pasta dishes with assistance from Germany- though mostly for cleanup.

Corytha was up in her room with her iphone, playing a new app she'd found called 'Abyssrium.' It was an addictive little tapping game. She found it adorable and found herself playing it nonstop in her free time, but she chose the solitude of her room so she could listen to the pleasant music in the background. Her friends remained downstairs watching tv until Sam came to inform her that dinner was ready.

"Today flew by in a heartbeat!" Sam stated, taking another massive bite of her food. Reagan elbowed her lightly under the table, mouthing the word 'manners' with a stern glance. The redhead quickly finished her mouthful and dabbed at her mouth with a napkin, glancing around to see if anyone had noticed the messy display. Thankfully they were all blissfully unaware. She couldn't help it, his food was delicious!

"That tends to happen on trips like these," Japan commented.

"You know what they say about time and fun," Reagan shrugged, trying to mimic Italy's motions as he ate his own food. She figured if anyone knew how to properly eat it, the italian himself would. Then again, this was Italy she was talking about.

"We need to get gelato every single day!" Prussia announced with a broad smile.

"You had three of them! That's quite enough for one week!" Germany chastised.

While Prussia began to reply to his statement with blunt dismissal, Italy looked over to the girls for a change in conversation.

"Ve~ So what did you think of your first day?"

"Awesome!"

"It was nice!"

"Pretty cool…"

"What was your favorite part~?"

"I really like the canals. The Grand Canal was amazing to see for the first time, all those boats everywhere and people just enjoying the day outside! Not to mention everywhere you walk just has this sort of nice… feeling. I can't really explain it."

"That's okay, neither can I!" Italy exclaimed a bit. She laughed. They talked for another ten minutes before Germany suddenly sighed and pressed his face into his hand.

"Alright, fine! You can have one gelato a day!" he begrudgingly stated. Prussia did a fist pump, though it paused mid-air with the German's next words. "But if you do, you have to train for two hours a day."

"Oh, come on West! We're on vacation!" he complained.

"I don't care. That's not an excuse to not stay in shape."

"Bah, fine! Two hours is nothing! But it would be even better if they participated!" Prussia jabbed a finger towards the girls with a mischievous smirk. Sam narrowed her eyes.

"Seriously? Why?"

"Because I said so!"

"THAT'S NOT A REASON."

Reagan held a hand up to silence them both and shook her head. "I fail to see why we should have to get involved when you're the one who wants the gelato. We're here to see Italy, not start a fitness program."

"It will be fun! You'll feel stronger! And besides, then you get to start the morning with double the greatness!"

"...What?"

Prussia beamed and slapped Germany on the back. "The great me and my great brother!"

Reagan laughed a bit while Sam nearly snorted out the milk she was drinking. Germany had an unamused expression on his face but made no comment, opting instead to ignore it completely.

"It could be a good idea for the exercise, if nothing else," he said, giving them a thoughtful look. "You're welcome to join or not, it's up to you."

"Well," Sam scratched her chin, actually starting to think on the idea. "Considering we don't do much at home except sit all day or walk around the house over summer, maybe it would be a good idea…"

"I guess you have a point," Reagan sighed. Corytha gave them both an incredulous glance, shocked that they would actually take the offer. From what she understood, Germany was pretty strict when it came to training.

"If that is the case, you are welcome to tag along. But it will be in the morning, so be ready."

Sam tilted her head a bit, an idea seemingly crawling its way to the front of her mind.

"If you and Prussia will be doing some specific training, can I do that? Instead of running around aimlessly?"

"...If you are willing to, then yes. But you must follow my orders to the best of your ability, and no complaining," Germany stated.

"Sir, yes, sir!" Sam sung with a quick salute before returning to her meal.

"I don't have to, do I?! Please say no!" Italy quickly threw in, a frown etched into his features.

"It would be in your best interest," the German scolded lightly before sighing. "But no, you don't have to."

"YAY~!"

"I guess I'll give it a try… I'm not the most physically fit though," Reagan laughed before looking at Corytha. "What about you, Cori? Feeling up to it?"

The blonde shook her head almost instantly. "N-No, that's okay."

"Aww, but it could be fun!" Sam pouted. "And besides, you could use some strength, girl. You're just meat on bone!"

"Gee, thanks," she replied coolly, her eyelids drooping. "I'm well aware of my fitness level, Sam."

"It doesn't have to be anything severe, you can just walk laps or something! Please come with us!"

"Sam, I don't think-"

"Pleeeeaaase~?"

"Sam. Leave it-"

"Pwetty pwease?"

"Why are you so insistent-"

"Please, please, please, please, pleeeeaaase-!" the redhead hung on her arm now, not bothering to notice the confused/amused expressions on the others faces at the table.

Eventually Corytha cracked under the childlike behavior and slapped at her arms, glaring at her.

"If I agree to walk laps would you kindly knock it off?!" she snapped. Even when she snapped, it was still a bit entertaining, since her voice was only a bit louder than Canada's. Her rage was like a frustrated butterfly. Soft and harmless.

"Yes!" Sam piped up, instantly stopping her previous behavior. Corytha rubbed her temples in an attempt to chase off the headache that had started to form.

After dinner, Prussia demanded that they watch an action movie of some sort. He snatched one from the tv cabinet and put it in while the others, having nothing else to do, decided to sit and watch it with him. Corytha contemplated it for a moment but ultimately decided she wanted to be alone right now. The nightmare had never fully left her conscious, and she had to get away from everyone in order to think about it undisturbed.

Her friends exchanged confused glances as they watched her ascending the stairs.

"Hey Cori, why don't you come watch this with us?"  
"I heard it was a pretty good movie," Japan added, hoping she would stay. If anyone had noticed how distant she seemed today, it was him, though he'd decided to keep his mouth shut. He could tell she didn't want to mention it, not even to her friends, though why he couldn't imagine. He'd seen it in her all day long- every stop they took, every time they started moving. She didn't even seem fully aware of the gelato she'd had. The girl had taken it and just started eating it, not making a comment other than a thank you for the purchase.

"...No thanks," she said, giving them a grim smile before going upstairs without another word.

"...Should we talk to her now or later?" Reagan asked Sam quietly, instantly knowing the blonde had something on her mind.

"Give her some time to herself, then we'll go," Sam replied.

* * *

After the movie ended, Prussia picked another would that would end right when everyone usually went to bed, so the girls opted out of that one to see how Corytha was faring in her bedroom.

When they got upstairs they heard light music coming from her room, so she wasn't talking to herself or doing anything unusual, it seemed.

Reagan knocked lightly on the door.

"Hey, Cori? Can we come in?"

The music stopped. There was no sound, like she was contemplating opening the door or saying something first.

"...Is it just you and Sam?"

"Yep."

"...Come on in, the door's not locked."

With her permission granted, they quickly stepped inside and closed the door behind them, walking over to sit with her on the bed. She closed out of an app and locked her iphone, setting it aside to look at them instead. She smiled faintly.

"How was the movie?"

"It was good, they're starting another one," Sam said. "But we wanted to come see if you were alright."

"...I'm okay, just tired."

"Cori, you haven't been yourself today… don't think I haven't noticed," Reagan sighed, giving her a sympathetic look. "You weren't really… 'here,' today. You looked like you were thinking the entire time or just… your mind was anywhere but here. And even right now you're giving short responses which means something is wrong and you're trying not to say it."

Shocked from the analysis of her actions, Corytha stared at them each for a solid minute before her expression crumbled from neutrality into distress. She looked away and gave up trying to hide it. There was no point. Try as she might to hold it in, the truth would surface eventually.

"...I just haven't been feeling that well, is all… I didn't want to say anything because we just got to Italy and you guys need to enjoy your trip, not deal with me the whole time…"

Sam pursed her lips and angled her head, forcing her to see her face.

"Corytha, we want to enjoy the trip, but we want you to enjoy it with us… what's the fun in going on a group trip when a whole portion of the group isn't feeling okay?"

"That wouldn't be a problem if I was better at dealing with things myself and not letting everything show on my face!" Corytha said, more upset with herself right now than anything.

"But that's what's good about you, Cori! You show a lot of emotion," Reagan smiled at her. "You feel a lot and that's a good thing, you shouldn't have to hide it. Besides, we want to be able to help you… we know you've gone through a lot these past few years."

"That's not an excuse…"

"You're right, it's not," Sam said. "But you don't need to beat yourself up, either."

"So what's bothering you, huh?" Reagan asked, her eyes full of friendly concern.

Corytha sighed. They wouldn't leave until they tried to resolve whatever was on her mind. That was usually how these things went.

"I don't know how to explain it…" she murmured. "I guess…. I guess I'm just out of it lately because of everything that's been happening… all of it feels unreal to me while the two of you are just having a blast and being yourselves, but I just feel stuck for some reason… and I'm glad you're having fun with this, but I… I guess I just don't get why I'm the only one who feels like something is weird here. Not the people or the traveling but just… the whole situation."

"You feel stuck?"

She nodded.

"How long have you felt like this?"

"Well I felt stuck since day one, but it really started a few days before that meeting… and it got really bad starting today for some reason, waking up in another place…"

Not to mention the dream. And she wouldn't, for her sanity and her friends. If they knew she had another nightmare about him, they would start to worry… she hadn't had a dream about him since therapy, and if that was resurfacing, what else would?  
"Do you think it might be because you feel like our lives are put on hold until we get home? Since we can't start college and continue with our normal lives?" Sam offered.

"That's a part of it I guess… we are literally stuck… but I also feel emotionally stuck somehow, like… like something is just off with me, and I don't know what it is," she said, starting to grow frustrated. "I mean even this morning, Prussia barged into my room and I didn't freak out! He just talks to me, and some of the others text me on occasion, and it just feels so… strangely mundane, as if… as if it's normal somehow, but it's not, and I can't-"

"Slow down there," Reagan softly slowed her down, resting a hand on her arm. "There's no need to panic over this… Now why would it concern you that these things felt mundane? After all we've been here for almost three weeks, you've had time to know some of them better, including Prussia. He texted you a ton that one day, so it's no surprise he would talk to you in person, if he sees you as a friend. The others might do the same thing when you see them, like Italy did too."

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with it, it's normal," Sam added with a shrug. "I don't know why you feel like it's a problem?"

"I don't know if it is a problem, it just feels weird and uncomfortable," Corytha sighed, resting her head in her hands. "You'd think I'd still be freaking out when someone was around, especially someone like him. It's not like the day at the meeting where I was sitting there paralyzed when they were fussing all around me! You guys are the ones who easily make friends and that stuff, not me! I haven't even adjusted to this life, I'm just settling with it until we get home, and yet this happens?"

Sam gripped her hands tightly to make her look up. Her gaze was firm but gentle in its own way.

"You're not paralyzed because maybe you understand that they aren't out to get you," she said in a level tone. "Maybe since you know their characters and you've started talking to them, you'll start feeling comfortable around them like you do us. That's not a bad thing, Cori. It means you're getting better at befriending people and trusting them to some extent. It's a good change, don't you understand that? So maybe it is different, and change can be uncomfortable at first, but if you weren't afraid of him this morning, maybe it means your fear is starting to go away!"

"That's a really good thing!" Reagan beamed kindly. "I saw how you were with the Nordics that night at the meeting. You seemed more at ease then, too. I mean you were talking to Finland like you first talked to me!"

"...Do you really think that's a good thing?" Corytha asked, glancing over hesitantly.

"Of course! I think it's awesome! You're starting to talk to more people on your own. Your sense of security around others might be getting better."

"I guess… I didn't think about it like that before…"

"Yeah," Sam added with a smile. "And maybe moving around from place to place is throwing you off too. It was hard enough adjusting here, but now you're having to move from house to house, to meetings and back again… as fun as all of it is for us, you're more introverted than we are. You need time to yourself instead of running around like a headless chicken."  
"That's true, maybe you need to have some you time for a few days, or at least not keep touring constantly when you do visit places. You know we have a free day on Wednesday, why don't you stay at the hotel and draw and watch tv or something?"

Corytha's expression lit up for a moment at the idea of having some quiet time instead of going out to see more. It wasn't that she didn't like traveling to see historic buildings and whatnot, but if she had to be honest, not being able to have some quiet time in the middle of all this chaos was starting to make her feel pressured somehow. A small smile finally graced her features.

"That sounds nice," she said.

"Heck yeah it does. And maybe Japan will stay and watch anime with you or something, I don't know. Either way even after this trip you should take some days off to just do the things you enjoy instead of constantly moving or thinking. That might help ease the stress of this whole thing."

Corytha finally beamed, her dark thoughts slowly ebbing away at her friend's advice. It was only thanks to their endless support that her thinking habits were beginning to change, and staying on the good side of things had become gradually easier, though there were still difficulties every now and then.

"I'll do that then. Thanks, you guys," she said earnestly. After a group hug and some reassuring words, the three best friends laid down side by side and decided to go on pinterest, laughing uncontrollably at the funny images they found. Since Sam and Reagan's phones were still connected to their world, they even found some Hetalia photos.

Later that night everyone started heading off to their bedrooms to get some rest. Japan and Italy simply said goodnight while Germany and Prussia informed them not to stay up too late since training would begin promptly at 6 in the morning. Sam instantly groaned, complaining that it felt like she was waking up for middle school again. As a result, it was very reluctantly pushed to 7 instead. They would be taking a boat tour tomorrow for the first part of their day, so some training in the morning wouldn't be a problem.

When Corytha climbed into bed, she felt slightly more optimistic than she had before. Still, fear that the nightmare would happen again kept her up for a few more hours until she could no longer keep her eyes open.

 _Don't let it happen again… if it does, I don't know what I'll do..._

* * *

 **A/N: Finally updated again! I promise I will eventually get everything posted, it's just been a fun time over here trying to make some changes in my life, but all is well right now. And to everyone who has commented thus far, thank you so much for the kind words! I know I've got a long ways to go as a writer, especially since I've never left the country so the traveling bits are very touristy and well... google. But I tried with what I've got. Also a forewarning, there is somewhat of a mary-sue backstory to one of my characters, but to be fair it's far more realistic than the past '6th grade' me created for her. xD So at least there's that, but you can't say I didn't warn ya! Hope everyone has a lovely day/night depending on when you're reading this! =P**


	7. Chapter 7- Training and Trade-Offs

The next day started just according to plan. Reagan opted to jog alongside Corytha and Japan, while Sam stayed with Germany and Prussia for more of a workout. Every time they ran by, Sam was being scolded for her form while Prussia laughed at her frustration. When Germany had said she would have to obey orders, he'd been serious.

"C'mon man, I don't have the upper body strength!" she growled, trying to lift a ridiculous weight.

"If you could lift the last one, you can lift this one," he scolded, giving her a stern glare that she gladly reciprocated.

"That makes no sense! This one is twice as heavy!" she snapped.

" _Lift it!_ "

"Damn it!"  
Grinding her teeth, she heaved with the last of her energy and hauled it over her head, holding it there for a few seconds before falling backwards with it. She hit the ground and it rolled away, and once again the albino nearby started cracking up.

Reagan stopped for a moment and snorted, trying to contain her laughter. It wasn't exactly successful.

"What are you laughing at?!" Sam spat, jabbing a finger in Reagan's direction. Corytha and Japan were walking now but kept stealing glances over their shoulders to hear what was happening.

"Is it too heavy for ya?" Reagan taunted with another laugh.

"Oh, really?! Why don't _you_ try it!"

"Nah, I'm good, Shaggy!"

"SAY THAT AGAIN!" she seethed, getting to her feet now.  
"SHAGGY!" Reagan burst into a run and shot past both Corytha and Japan with Sam in hot pursuit. Germany called after her, but she completely ignored him, opting instead to chase her friend until she could tackle her football-style. The others watched as they raced around the yard, but Reagan was a decent runner thanks to her long legs while Sam specialized in short bursts of speed.

When Reagan turned again, the redhead suddenly kicked it into gear and charged with the last of her energy, launching herself forward and dragging them both to the ground. They rolled around for several moments before Corytha walked over and lightly prodded them in the side with her foot.

"Come on you guys, cut it out," she sighed.

They broke apart and sat up. When they saw each other's hair, they started laughing and got to their feet, beginning to walk like nothing had just happened. Germany came up beside Corytha with Prussia at his side, giving them both a confused stare.

"...Are they like this often?"

"All the time," she murmured.

"Well I think I'm going to run a few laps then go inside," Germany finally stated.

"Great! Corytha, you should join me and West!" Prussia said, slapping her lightly on the back of her shoulder. She visibly flinched at this and jerked away, bringing her arm up as if in protection. When she realized it was just him, she calmed only slightly and shook her head.

"I can't run very well," she said.

"Nonsense," he grabbed her wrist and pulled her behind him over to the side where they started to jog. Though at first she refused to, he started to pull her along until she obliged, so in the end she was jogging between them. Prussia wouldn't let her fall behind, either, only adding to the discomfort she was beginning to feel.

 _He couldn't drag Sam back to do this?!_ She thought, casting a glance over her shoulder at her friends. Sam gave her a grin and a thumbs up. She glared back but said nothing.

The first lap wasn't terrible, but by the time they reached the third she wanted nothing more than to drop out and walk again. It had only been nine months since her physical therapy, and even though she was regaining muscle mass from her malnutrition, her limbs didn't appreciate much strain. If anything she was told to make gradual progress and to not force it if she began to hurt.

Once she started to slow down, Prussia noticed instantly, to her dismay.

"Come on, Cori, we're almost done!"

"I-I can't," she breathed, "I have to stop now."

"But you're over halfway there!" he argued. She had slowed to a walk now, her lungs ablaze while her feet seemed to protest sharply.

"J-Just keep going!" she replied, giving him a look that said 'don't push it, please.' He begrudgingly left her behind to finish his running with Germany.

Sam and Reagan walked over to where she was leaning against the wall, holding her arms to stabilize her body. It wasn't that the movement had been entirely difficult, but it caused her enough discomfort to feel like continuing wouldn't have ended well for her. She could walk for a very long time but her muscles hadn't quite recovered.

"Hey, you okay?" Sam asked, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she breathed, "My muscles were starting to freak out on me."

"At least you're still standing," Reagan smiled at her. "I'm surprised you almost made three laps around this property!"

Corytha laughed a bit, getting back fully on her feet while the rest of the group showed up, finished with their exercising for the morning.

"What gives?!" Prussia asked as he stood in front of her, his arms folded across his chest. She looked up at him and blinked, confused as to why he even cared.

"I had to stop, I can't push it..." she murmured, looking away as if uncertain she should have said what she did. He opened his mouth to say something in return, but was stopped suddenly.

"She's not really in the best shape for physical strain, of any kind," Sam said bluntly, giving Prussia a stern look that Corytha wouldn't notice. She elbowed him in the side and walked back towards the house.

"Anyway, Italy's probably waiting for us so we can get going. Let's head back!" she called over her shoulder. As everyone started following her without any further questions, Germany exchanged a look with Japan at the redhead's comment. Reagan inwardly facepalmed, not sure why she'd gone and used such direct language to explain the problem.

 _That definitely won't make them wonder,_ she sighed internally. Had Corytha been able to hear Reagan's thoughts, she would have agreed, but she chose not to chastise Sam openly in case the others decided to ask more questions.

When they returned to the house, Italy was completely prepared to leave- well, he was ready to leave. Prepared was another story. Everyone took a short breather while sweaty clothes were changed. Soon they were done with the morning routine and they headed out into the city, excited to begin another day of sightseeing.

* * *

The week continued much the same as it had been, to Corytha's growing displeasure. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate it- there was definitely a lot to learn, albeit in a short amount of time, and the things she got to witness would always hold a special place in her memory. She hadn't even had the nightmare again! But fun times wore down quickly with her, and Wednesday hadn't come fast enough to her liking. Luckily the third day had come and gone, and tomorrow she would be able to stay at the hotel all day. They were in Rome for now- today they'd seen the Colosseum- and would be moving on soon.

Her decision to stay at the hotel all day didn't go over well with Italy, who insisted she go with them to see more of the city before they left. Even Germany seemed to have some resistance, if only for the fact she would be here alone. Japan ended up wanting to go, leaving her to her own devices.

"I'm just saying, I don't think it's a good idea for her to stay here by herself," Germany insisted. "If something happens and we aren't here-"

"Can't she just call?" Sam sighed, mentally screaming that this was taking so long. It shouldn't be that big of a deal.

"In case of an emergency, someone should be with you at all times!" the German continued, concern disguised as irritation on his face. "You girls are not a part of this world. I will not risk something happening to any of you."

Reagan exchanged a look with Japan before stepping up to speak.

"Look, I understand your concern… if you really don't want her here by herself, then I can stay!"

"B-But Reagan," Cortha spoke up, "You really wanted to go out today…"

The strawberry blonde girl smiled.

"Yeah, but you don't need to be moving around today either. If he wants someone here with you, I'll gladly do it."

"Reagan…"

Prussia was standing near the door with his head against the wall. He just wanted to get going.

"Ve~ I have an idea!" Italy suddenly said, his usual cheerful expression lighting up the room.

"Yes, what is it?" Germany sighed.

"Why don't I give my brother a call? He should be here- then Reagan can come with us and Cori won't be by herself! Everyone wins!"

Before anyone could object, he'd pulled out his cell phone and gave said brother a call. At first it didn't seem like anyone would pick up, but eventually the line was opened and a clear, loud voice cut through the speaker.

"What the hell do you want?!"

"Hey! It's me!"

"I know who it is, damn it!"

Italy slipped off to talk while the others waited patiently for a few minutes, wondering how the whole conversation would go.

Corytha pulled her friends to the side with wide eyes and instantly panicked.

"W-What if he says yes?! I can't stay with Romano by myself! I hardly know him!"

"Cori, you barely know any of these guys," Sam reasoned, cocking an eyebrow. "Staying with him by yourself isn't much different from staying with Japan by yourself, is it?"

Corytha's eyelids drooped in disbelief.

"Yes. Because a cussing, easily angered Italian is the exact same as a quiet, calm Japanese man."

Sam snorted a bit with laughter while Reagan took over the conversation.

"Cori, I understand your concern, but I think Italy is right… this might be best for both sides. You can't be by yourself, but you need some introvert time. Romano is nicer to girls- remember what his profile said? And anyway, he can be pretty laid back-"

" _Lazy~_ " Sam coughed into her hand.

Reagan shot her a brief look. "...He can probably be relaxed when there's no one around to get him going. Maybe you'll end up watching tv or something."

Corytha sighed. She wouldn't win this argument. Still, she hadn't been alone with any of the countries before. As in, actually, completely alone in a building. The moments with Prussia so far didn't count.

"I-I just want to go back to England's… I want to stay put somewhere for a while," she eventually caved, rubbing at her temples. She was beginning to have a headache.

Reagan put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile.

"I understand. Don't worry, we'll be back at his place before you know it, and then we'll have a whole week before that meeting to decide where we go next."

Corytha smiled back at her when Italy bounded back into the room with a wide smile. He did a small twirl before putting his phone away and rambling on about the results on the conversation. At first he spoke only of random things until Germany demanded he get to the point.

"Ah~! He said she could stay at his house until we're done, and we can pick her up on the way to the airport!"

Corytha's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. He'd discussed her _staying_ there for three nights?!

"Woah!" Sam said suddenly, shocked. "You mean you arranged for her to stay there until we go back to England's?!"

Germany knocked Italy lightly upside the head. "Dummkopf! She was only going to stay at his house for today!"

"Oh~" he said, a sweat drop forming on the side of his head.

"Ah, whatever! Let's just drop her off then!" Prussia exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. "It doesn't really matter, does it?"

The albino had a point. They were mostly doing walking the rest of the trip, similar to what Corytha was avoiding today. It was only two days after this that they'd be going back. What harm would it do for her to stay put while the rest of them went on? At least then she'd be with someone, and chances were she wouldn't have to move anywhere. It seemed like the perfect set-up, despite the blonde's inward horror at the realization she'd be staying at someone's house alone. Someone she barely knew and hadn't even met before.

Prussia was quick to get her suitcase together and push her by the shoulders out the door while everyone followed behind. Though her friends didn't admit this out loud, they were actually a bit concerned for Corytha. Not because of who her company would be, but more so because there was no way of knowing how she would handle it.

* * *

Italy brought them to Romano's house. It was similar to his own home, but a bit smaller, and the lawn was slightly less tended to, but it was equally as grand. Not that they would have expected any less.

When they approached the front door, only the girls and Italy had gone, since chaos would break out if either of the Germans were there. Probably. They decided to not take the chance.

Italy rang the doorbell, Within a couple of minutes they heard light grumbling on the other side of the door. Shortly after, the door was yanked open, revealing Romano in casual clothes. He seemed mildly surprised at first until he realized what was going on.

"Which one is staying here?" he asked, giving his brother a light glare.

"Cori is~!" he replied, patting the blonde next to him on the shoulder. She gripped her suitcase warily and gave him a shy glance before looking away, causing him to sigh.

"Alright, come in," he said flatly, stepping out of the way. But not before taking one of the bags from her hands to help, which surprised her. Corytha tentatively entered the house and looked around to get a feeling for her new surroundings. The others followed her in, though they'd only be staying for a few minutes.

While Romano and Italy seemed to get into a random argument off to the side, Sam pulled Corytha aside and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Are you okay staying here on your own?" she asked.

"Not like I have much of a choice," she murmured. "They went to all this trouble to bring me here and everything… I can't just leave, now."

"I'll take plenty of pictures for ya at Pompeii," Reagan smiled a bit. Corytha smiled but said nothing in return.

"Alright, bellas~ Ready to go?" Italy said, butting his way into the conversation.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Okay! Let's go~!"

While he seemingly disappeared out the door after saying goodbye to Corytha, her friends gave her a group hug before they followed after him. She watched as they vanished from view and Romano closed the door, leaving the two of them in silence for several minutes.

Neither of them seemed to know what to say, though the struggle was probably more frustrating for him than herself. She was used to being quiet and letting others do the talking. Eventually he cleared his throat and walked past her to the stairs beyond.

"Your room is this way."

He sounded somewhat perplexed by the situation, since he'd probably never had someone stay here like this before. She followed him upstairs and down the hallway to the guest room, which seemed to have been rapidly organized not too long ago. She couldn't blame him if the place had originally been a mess- no one in the show had really stayed here as far as she could remember. He probably had little use to keep up a guest room.

"This is yours. Use anything you want to- that goes for everything in this house," he said, glaring off to the side of the room. "Just ask before you do anything, but take what you want. And don't break anything."

Seemingly out of anything else to say, he turned and started to leave the room when Corytha finally found her voice and called out after him.

"Th-Thank you-!" she said, causing him to stop and look at her in slight surprise. Apparently he hadn't thought she would say anything. His gaze made her flinch inwardly, so she turned her eyes downward, shy as usual around someone new.

"...No problem," he eventually replied. With that, he was gone.

After the awkward exchange of words, she released a breath she hadn't known she was holding and set her suitcase next to the dresser, checking to make sure all of her things were accounted for in her other bag. Inside of it was her sketchpad and pencil, as well as a couple books she had to read. Otherwise she had the charger for her phone and headphones for music.

"This will be interesting," she mumbled to herself. Of all the things she thought would happen today, this was not one of them. Really she hadn't thought this would happen during their entire stay.

As she lay on her back on the bed and browsed the games on her iphone, she thought about the many things that had already happened. Things still felt strange to her, but her friends had been right- she got used to it pretty fast, talking to the countries she was around often. It was easy enough to talk to Japan and Italy. Germany was a bit intimidating, but not unlike Sam in some ways. Prussia basically talked to her anytime he saw her, though she got the vague feeling that he was frustrated with her sometimes. England was relatively easy to talk to as well. Overall, many of them seemed to be nice. It still didn't make her feel any more settled in this world though.

She noticed a message notification on her screen and furrowed her eyebrows as she opened the app. She didn't remember seeing it before. When it opened, she noticed it was Denmark. It seemed he'd been trying to talk to her since yesterday. She was shocked to find that as soon as she replied, he was on the other end.

Corytha: "Sorry Mathias, I didn't check my messages yesterday! D:"

Denmark: "no worries! whatcha up to?"

Corytha: "Nothing at the moment… in a few days we go back to England's."

Denmark: "oh that's right, you're with Italy aren't ya?"

Corytha: "Yep!"

Denmark: "having fun there so far?"

Corytha: "Yeah, it's been pretty great (= Saw the Colosseum yesterday."

Denmark: "cool! you still need to come here though ;D"

Corytha: "That would be nice. I won't invite myself though, haha."

Denmark: "haha I got ya. by the way you're more talkative on text than you are in person! o:"

Corytha: "Yeah… pretty common theme :P"

Denmark: "aww, why?"

Corytha: "I don't know… just not the best talker I guess. I get tongue-tied."

Denmark: "hmm. well maybe we can fix that sometime! man if you come to stay with us, you'll be occupied for weeks! :D ah I hope you get sent to our house next meeting, who knows how much time you have..."

Corytha: "You'd want me over that badly?"

Denmark: "heck yeah! It's been a while since I've showed someone around, same with the others. plus I just think it would be fun, and mildly entertaining"

Corytha: "Entertaining?"

Denmark: "you got it, not a lot of people can be around us five for long haha. I think it would be funny :p"

Corytha: "Haha, I could probably handle weird. It's better than the alternatives."

Denmark: "xD you might have a point with that one"

Corytha: "In the meantime I'm stuck by myself at Romano's house… this will be interesting."

Denmark: "wait, why are you at his place?"

Corytha: "It was an accident… I just wanted to stay put today but Germany didn't want me staying at the hotel alone. Italy just kind of hooked me up here. He ended up arranging for me to stay here the last few days of the trip instead of just today."

Denmark: "ooh, bummer. - wish I could help ya, we're not doing much here"

Corytha: "It'll be fine… I hope =/"

Denmark: "ah, you'll be okay (: if you get too bored just give me a call!"

Corytha: "Haha- Alright, thank you."

Denmark: "Berwald just called me to help him with something, so I gotta run! D: Sorry!"

Corytha: "Okay; Tell him I said hello!"

Denmark: "will do. ttyl Cor!"  
-

She smiled slightly at his last message. While her name was already shortened quite a bit with her nickname of 'Cori,' the Dane had shortened it yet again by a single letter. She wasn't sure why he did it, but he'd done it enough by now that she knew it wasn't a mistype.

The girl set her phone aside and took up her sketchbook and pencil. Most of her day was spent in silence, aside from the occasional outburst downstairs, which she could only imagine was Romano reacting to something on television. He seemed to feel no need to come upstairs, and she felt no need to venture downstairs. She wasn't really prepared to say anything anyway.

However, by the time dinner rolled around, she could feel the emptiness in her stomach and wondered if she should ask for food. He had mentioned that she could take what she wanted as long as she asked first.

 _But I don't feel comfortable talking first,_ she thought, anxiously fiddling with her fingers in her lap. It was easier when confronted with someone like Finland or even Britain at this point, but not someone new, and not someone like Romano. She wondered if it would annoy him, though she tried to reason that he'd instructed her to do so in the first place. Her stomach growled loudly and she winced, glaring at the wall.

 _C'mon, Cori, you need to eat…_

Before she could make up her mind, a knock sounded at her door. She got to her feet quickly as it opened and the Italian stepped inside, looking mildly tired with life at the moment.

"Are you hungry?" he asked bluntly, seemingly over his flustered phase from before.

She held a hand over her stomach and glanced away. "I-I, um-"

Her stomach growled out a response. Of course. Her entire face flushed red at the sound. It took everything in her not to physically react to it, either by trying to hide her face or by standing in the corner of shame. Unbeknownst to her, Romano's mouth quirked up in a smirk for a moment as he rolled his eyes.

"Food's almost ready downstairs, come on," he said, motioning for her to follow him. She sighed quietly and tagged along behind, staying silent as they ventured to the kitchen. Occasionally she couldn't refrain from looking around at the random Roman artifacts near the walls, everything from portrait sculptures to vases to mosaics. At times his house seemed cluttered, but overall it was a nice space with interesting stuff.

Seated at the table, their conversations remained very much the same- short and simple. Other than thanking him for the food, which ended up being yet another pasta recipe (not that she expected much else), few words were shared between them for the longest time. It almost made her feel tense, though he seemed even more uncomfortable with the silence, looking around as if trying to find an excuse to talk.

"So you go back soon, right?" he eventually asked.

"Y-Yeah… in three days," she replied. She kept her eyes on her plate and focused on keeping herself calm. She wasn't used to handling herself in these situations completely alone.

"Have you enjoyed your trip?"

She nodded. "It's been great, there's a lot to see."

"Any favorite spots?" he seemed to be listing off every question he could think of to keep the silence from returning.

"Probably the Colosseum," she said softly. She hadn't even said that remembering she was in Rome, it had just honestly been her favorite destination thus far, like Stonehenge had been.

"Really?"

Though she didn't see, he was giving her a slightly disbelieving look. Of all the places she'd been to- and he'd heard enough from his brother to know- and she liked the Colosseum the most? He didn't expect that. Not when she'd been on boat tours in Venice and other things by now.

She laughed a bit at his response, sensing the underlying tone. "I know it probably sounds like a tourist thing to say, but it really was amazing… I like scenery as much as the next person, but sights like the Colosseum and Stonehenge are really interesting to me."

For some reason she found herself loosening up as she spoke, so she kept going, to her company's surprise.

"It's like being able to step back in time, kind of. You see these huge creations where people who aren't around anymore- and haven't been for thousands of years- just… lived their lives. They're like echoes from the past, in a way… there's a lot to learn and feel when you go to those places. Not to mention it's such an iconic structure… I don't know."

When her words were met with silence, she glanced up to find him still staring at her. His eyebrows were furrowed, but he did not seem angry, just thinking deeply for some reason. She gulped a bit and averted her gaze again.

"S-Sorry, I ramble sometimes," she began to apologize.

"Do you want to learn more about it?"

His question took her by surprise and caused her to look back at him quickly.

"...P-Pardon?"  
"I could tell you more about it… and Rome, if you want," he clarified. This time it was his turn to look away, face slightly red from embarrassment.

Soon she realized what he was offering and her face lit up in brief excitement. If Sam had seen this she would have called her a history nerd.

"That would be great!" she shrunk down a bit after her peppy outburst. "I-If you don't mind…"

He seemed to smile lightly at her abrupt switch in attitude.

For the remainder of the night, the odd tension and awkwardness seemed to fade away as they sat in the living room and talked about history. For a while he focused on the Colosseum and some of the functions it had that not many people seemed aware of, like how it could be used for naval battle reenactments. Of course, Corytha had already known some of these things, but from the way he seemed proud to share she kept her mouth shut. It was refreshing to hear how the mechanics worked anyway.

Time flew by fast, and before either of them knew it, it was already time for bed. The girl yawned and covered her mouth quickly with a hand as he finished talking about one of the more 'recent' emperors that no one knew much about.

"That's fascinating," she concluded, rubbing at her eyes a bit. He glanced at the clock. When he realized the time, his eyes widened and he got to his feet quickly.

"Damn it, I didn't know it was that late! You could have said something!" he exclaimed, dumbfounded. The time of 12:31 AM sat right before him like a slap to the face.

Corytha managed a tired smile. The later it was, the less timid she appeared to be.

"You were just so into it, I didn't want to tell you to stop," she laughed a bit.

His face went red at her comment but he made no attempt to reply. Instead he sighed and held out a hand, pulling her to her feet.

"Come on, you need to go to sleep," he mumbled, leading her she was physically tired, Corytha was wide awake in her mind. She had never seen this side of him really in the anime. It was refreshing, in a way… it made him feel more human. Not that the others didn't seem that way to her over time, but things had remained almost rigid the entire time the girls had been here. They didn't often show other sides to themselves, so there was a barrier between them and the girls, or so she felt like some days. She could understand why. They were already risking a lot.

When they reached her room, she stepped inside and stretched herself out, ready to just go to bed and recharge for tomorrow. She would be here until Saturday morning, so what she would do all day tomorrow and Friday was beyond her. Oh well.

Since Romano hadn't left yet, she decided to say something then in case she forgot later for some reason. She turned to face him and messed with the sleeve of her shirt a bit, forcing herself to look at his face so he'd know she was being earnest.

"I-I, um… I wanted to say thank you," she said quietly, stopping him in his tracks as he'd turned to leave. "For letting me stay here for a few days… I appreciate it."

"...It's nothing."

After he left, she felt herself sigh inwardly. Not that she expected much more of a response. Things were off to a good start at least, or so she hoped. She still wasn't too sure of herself having to act on her own. It wasn't that she was incapable of doing so back at home, but here things were a bit different, and she didn't want to mess up with anyone before they went back. She liked leaving a good impression. Or rather, she sincerely hoped that's what she did.

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts away for now, she crawled into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin, staring blankly at the dark ceiling.

 _It'll be a month soon since we've been here,_ she thought. It was strange to think how much time had passed, and yet it almost didn't seem soon enough, even. Though being here was no longer so scary to her, it still wasn't right. Everything they knew- their entire lives- only existed back in their world. She missed it… missed the simple summer they'd planned and starting college soon. Those plans were put on hold now.

She couldn't change reality, but she would keep waiting for the day they could leave this strange event behind and carry on with their lives.


	8. Chapter 8- Odd Turn of Events

The first thing Cori did the next morning was rush to throw cold water on her face in the bathroom across the hallway from her room. She was breathing somewhat heavily, her body shaking uncontrollably from the dream she'd just had.

Again. He'd been in her dream again. And this time it didn't end when he'd attacked her- no, this time the torture had started. And it felt real… all too real. The burning still crept beneath her skin, melting her to the bone. It had hurt so badly that she couldn't even bring herself to scream.

Tears rolled down her face but were soon washed away by the cold water.

"God…. oh god…." she breathed, trying desperately to calm herself down.

Of all times for the dreams to start coming back, why did it have to be now? And within just a few days…

"Are you up, Ragazza?"

She started a bit at hearing the voice right outside the bathroom. When she remembered who it was, she quickly shut off the water and turned towards the door.

"Y-Yeah, I'm awake," she replied in the steadiest voice she could muster.

He must have been able to tell something was off with her though.

"Is everything okay?"

"Just fine," she replied, straightening her clothes out and calming her tone. It seemed believable enough.

"Okay… well, um, I made breakfast, so just come downstairs I guess."

"Alright, sounds good."

She heard his footsteps fade downstairs. Sighing to herself, she left the bathroom and returned to her own to fix the bedsheets and put on a fresh set of clothes for the day.

"If this keeps up, I'll stop being able to sleep again," she murmured as she reached the bottom of the stairs. When she reached the kitchen she was met with a surprising sight.

Spain was seated at the table, already eating. Romano was at the other end of the table, but when he saw her walk in he straightened up, causing Spain to look over his shoulder as well. As soon as he noticed her his face seemed to light up, a smile spreading wide across his face.

"Buenos dias, chica! I didn't know you were here!" he greeted cheerfully.

Any remnants of the pain she'd felt seemed to wash away. She smiled back a bit hesitantly, and gave Romano a quick glance as if to ask what was going on, but she decided it was best to respond herself.

"Um, n-nice to see you," she stammered.

Romano sighed and motioned for her to sit down, to which she obliged.

"Sorry," he grumbled. "I was going to tell you he was coming over today, but apparently the bastard decided to come early."

His stern voice was shot directly towards Spain, who only beamed back, evidently used to being spoken to in that manner.

"I just thought you would like the company, Romano! You've been here on your own lately. No one needs to be in solitude for that long!"

Romano just sighed again and glared at him. "I already told you, I don't need you to keep me company…"

Corytha smiled softly to herself and stayed out of the exchange while helping herself to breakfast. Romano was just about as good a cook as his brother was, as it turned out. If she kept eating like this the entire trip as she had so far she'd be back to her normal weight in no time.

"So where are your friends? Weren't you on a trip with them?" Spain turned to her with a curious look on his face.

"Oh," she began, "Well um… yesterday I wanted to stay at the hotel by myself, but Germany wouldn't let that happen because he thinks someone should be with us at all times. So Italy ended up calling here to see if I could stay until the end of the trip… though it was only supposed to be for yesterday."

Romano gave her a surprised look and set down his utensil.

"You were only supposed to stay yesterday?"

"That was the plan, before Italy kind of… well, you know," she laughed a bit out of nervousness, looking down at her plate.

"Gah, mio fratello è un idiota!" he nearly shouted, causing her to flinch a bit. Then he glared in her direction. "You should have said something yesterday!"

"I-I didn't… I…" she stared back at him, afraid he was angry with her for not admitting this sooner. She should have kept her mouth shut.

"Aw, maybe she doesn't mind spending more time here, Romano!" Spain piped up from behind her. "I mean, if she didn't want to be here, she would have said something right?"

At this, the Italian's fuse seemed to fade and his expression softened a bit, noting the concern he'd seen in her eyes. He wasn't mad at her so much as the fact she hadn't originally planned on staying a few days, though he couldn't decide whether the frustration he felt was towards her or his brother who had caused the mistake in the first place.

"Yeah, yeah," he scowled lightly and kept eating, dropping the subject altogether. After an awkward minute or so of silence, Spain went back to talking to Corytha.

"Can I ask why you wanted to stay by yourself though? I would think being on a trip like that would keep you pretty occupied!"

Romano glanced in her direction, curious to hear her answer.

Normally she wouldn't let her guard down. It was the last thing she liked to do, especially around people she barely knew, but she saw no reason to lie. After her dream last night she was beginning to wonder if this whole thing was getting to her anyway. In the end, she almost felt like she wanted someone else to know other than her friends.

"Well… to be honest," she said in a calm voice, "I haven't… been feeling good lately. Sam suggested I start taking more time to just sit down for a day. We keep moving around on these trips. I just need things to stop for a while…"

Spain gave her a sympathetic smile, although the undertone of her words had probably gone over his head. He patted her on the arm before getting to his feet to move his dishes to the counter.

"At least you can relax here the next couple of days! You'll feel better in no time! We should all take a siesta," he laughed.

With the Spaniard out of earshot, she sighed and straightened up her plate, but shortly afterwards Romano took it away himself. He turned away quickly, so she couldn't see his expression, but she sensed that he'd understood the actual meaning behind what she'd said.

After Spain disappeared back into the living room beyond, Corytha hesitantly stepped over to where Romano was haphazardly cleaning dishes and putting them off to the side for later. Slightly still disorganized as his brother had been, and yet in his own house he seemed to take better care of things than he showed in the original anime. He soon noticed her standing idly nearby and huffed a bit at her silence.

"What do you want?" he demanded, though she sensed it was more his way of asking 'how can I help you?' She refrained from laughing at her thoughts.

"I was wondering if you needed any help with clean-up," she replied softly, holding her hands behind her back in her own polite gesture. She just felt wrong eating anywhere and not offering to help.

"No, it's fine," he replied bluntly. They both fell quiet for a moment or two.

The girl couldn't tell if there was some sort of lingering irritation after what she'd said before, but she didn't want to leave anything unresolved, so she decided to say something anyway.

"...I want to apologize for before," she started, hoping he wouldn't interrupt. "I didn't say anything because you and your brother had arranged this and everything, so… I decided to just go along with it."

He said nothing, so she continued.

"I think spending some time here will be good for me… and maybe it'll give us an excuse to have more of those history conversations, huh?" she laughed nervously, wishing that he'd at least say something. She needed to know if he was okay or not.

Wordless still, he turned back to the table to clear off the rest of the items on it. She didn't realize it had been his excuse to stay in the kitchen longer to hear her out. It looked like he was prepared to leave shortly though, which bothered her.

"R-Romano-"  
"Lovino."

She blinked, the tension fading from her shoulders a bit.

"What?"

He looked up at her, and for a brief second there seemed to be a flush of red on his face, though she wasn't sure why.

"You can call me Lovino… if you want to," he awkwardly finished, straightening up and heading for the living room.

 _Did that… go well?_ She wondered. Shaking her head a bit to clear the thoughts away, she followed after him and watched as he seemingly plopped onto the adjacent recliner by the couch where Spain was sitting. The carefree man gave her another smile and patted the spot next to him.

"Sit down and watch something with us, chica!" he invited enthusiastically. She couldn't help herself- his attitude could be contagious. She found herself smiling back and walked over to the stairs.

"Let me get something first!"

* * *

After getting her sketchbook, pencil and phone just in case her friends called, she sat down on the couch and worked on some drawings while the other two flipped through channels to find something interesting to watch. Usually when one finally found something they liked, the other disagreed, though it was usually Romano who demanded the channel be changed. Spain helped himself to snacks and persuaded her to have some as well. The day ended up being far more relaxed than she could have imagined, and she didn't have to do much talking herself, only speaking up when asked a question or other small things. She felt safer than she thought she would, being by both of them on her own. Sam had been right about one thing- her fears had definitely been subsiding. Though it seemed uncalled for, especially given the circumstances of her being here in the first place.

Today felt eerily similar to how she felt back at home. Her and her friends, lounging around the living room and watching television, usually while Sam mocked whoever was in the show. Those had been fun times. Casual, and probably a bit lazy, but fun.

Some time after dinner, they did mostly the same thing, though Spain had become interested in figuring out plans for tomorrow. It seemed he was going to stay up until the time Corytha left on Saturday.

"I think we should get out of the house tomorrow," Spain said, laying on the floor at the moment. "You know, stretch our legs a little bit, get a breath of fresh air!"

 _Great. More moving,_ Corytha sighed inwardly.

"We're not going anywhere far," Romano grumbled. "And I'm not moving all day, either."

"Oh, we don't have to do that!" Spain propped himself up on his elbows and gave them both a lazy grin. "I was thinking more along the lines of relaxing outside somewhere."

"..." Romano actually seemed to think on this for a moment. "...There's a vineyard not too far from here-"  
"Perfect! We can go there and relax tomorrow! And that way we can get some sun on our skin, si?" the spaniard grinned.

Romano looked at Corytha, waiting for her to say something.

 _Well… guess it beats sitting here all day, and it still won't be much walking,_ she thought.

"If you guys want to, I'm up for it," she replied quietly.

"...Guess that's the plan then," he said, closing his eyes.

"Great! It's been so long since we've done something, Romano!"  
"Shut up, you bastard! It hasn't been that long!"

When the light bickering started, Corytha smiled sheepishly, closed her sketchbook and got to her feet. After staying up late last night, she figured getting to sleep a bit early today wasn't a bad idea.

"I'm going to bed," she announced, making her way to the stairs.

"Oh, okay! Goodnight Cori!" Spain called. She waved at them before proceeding to her room and getting ready to sleep for that night.

She decided to check her messages one last time before sleeping, only to find her friends had sent her messages in a group chat for just the three of them.

* * *

Sam: "hey girl, get your butt on here!"

Reagan: "You there? =)"

Corytha: "Hey! Yeah, I'm here (:"

Sam: "geez, took you long enough"

Corytha: "Sorry, I was downstairs."

Reagan: "How's everything at Romano's? You doing alright?"

Corytha: "Yeah, it's fine. Spain's here too. We're going to some vineyard to hang out tomorrow."

Reagan: "Cool! That should be fun! ^-^"

Corytha: "Haha, yep."

Sam: "is anyone giving you any trouble? do I need to beat anyone up?"

Corytha: "No, they're fine. It's actually kind of nice talking to Romano."

Sam: "...are we thinking of the same Romano?"

Reagan: "lol Sam. Anyway good for you, girl! Things are just about the same over here. Ludwig is having a fun time trying to keep everyone accounted for."

Corytha: "Haha, uh-oh. Anything interesting happen?"

Sam: "not really, same old stuff pretty much. I think Prussia wishes you would have stuck around."

Corytha: "Not sure why he cares… I don't regret coming here though. It's been relaxing."

Reagan: "That's awesome. Are you feeling any better?"

Corytha: "Yeah, a bit. It helps having fewer people here too. They do most of the talking, I get to sit and draw. xD"

Reagan: "XD Hey, whatever works!"

Sam: "can you guys believe it's almost a month now since we've been here?"

Reagan: "The time has really flown by, hasn't it. I wonder how Arthur's research is coming along. He told me he'd let me know if he found anything significant."

Sam: "well he did say it would take a few months, probably. I agree he should find something soon though."

Corytha: "Hopefully. Is he keeping an eye on Sadie, too?"

Reagan: "I hope so! D: He said he would!"

* * *

Corytha laughed to herself and texted her friends for a while longer, feeling comforted by the fact they were still around in their own ways. They told her a small bit about what they'd done in her absence. Nothing new, really, which was almost relieving to her for some reason.

But gradually she felt herself growing tired, so she said goodnight and told them she'd text them when she got back tomorrow evening. The following morning, she'd see them again at the airport. As interesting as the trip to Italy had been, she couldn't wait to get back to Arthur's for a week of nothing.

* * *

The day at the vineyard had been far less eventful than even Corytha had imagined. They arrived shortly after noon and spent their time sitting on a hill overlooking a drop off to a valley below. With Romano there they were allowed to wander where they wanted around the place, but they'd settled beneath a tree for the shade while looking out at the view beyond. Corytha's gaze lingered on the sky for a good portion of the time, and eventually she followed Spain's example, laying back on the grass. Eventually Romano did the same. With all three of them laying there in mostly silence, she nearly forgot where she was. She nearly started to forget the entire situation, getting lost in the clouds above her.

 _I almost wish I could just… do this until we go home,_ she thought solemnly to herself. _...Home…_

As her mind so often did in moments of silence, she began to reflect on everything that had happened to her before now. Before coming here, before even living with Reagan. How she wished she could just delete the memories as easily as deleting a file from a computer… but that would forever remain impossible. No, she would be forced to remember everything for as long as she lived… and the nightmares were only a fraction of the pain she'd been left with. She would never forget the scars, or the words he'd screamed at her in the night.

What even was home to her anymore? She'd thought for a while now that Reagan's house was just that. Even earth, now that she was here. But when she thought about it, she was only reminded of the fact one day they would have to move from that house. And whether the girls ended up living together or not was a fate only time could tell. She could possibly end up very much alone while they went off to pursue their own careers. Which was fine, of course. But the weight of having to forge a new life when she'd been left bleeding in the dust had grown too heavy on her heart lately.

None of this had she admitted to her friends. While they must have had their suspicions, she revealed nothing, not wanting them to think she needed to return to therapy. She could do it on her own… and besides, the therapy had costed Reagan's grandmother hundreds per visit. They'd already paid for her surgery and medication, even the physical therapy afterwards. She refused to let them pay anymore.

Sighing a bit too heavily as she closed her eyes to chase away the darker thoughts coming to mind, her company- as she'd forgotten they were close by- gave her confused looks.

"Are you thinking about something, amiga?" Spain asked.

Her eyes snapped open again. Flushing with embarrassment that she'd let any amount of stress show just now, she smiled hesitantly and shook her head.

"N-Nothing important," she replied.

As Spain began to chat away, she caught a glimpse of Romano's face. He gave her a knowing look that she almost wished she hadn't seen. It meant he knew she was hiding something.

* * *

That night when she was getting her things together for the trip home in the morning, she couldn't stop thinking about the things in her head from before. It was impossible to ignore the growing sense of dread and uncertainty about being here longer as well as returning to their normal lives. The girl didn't know why she felt such a rush of emotion, nor could she place why it felt so wrong… before coming here she'd felt optimistic. Now… everything was being replaced with worry. The returning nightmares weren't helping either. She had to figure out how to get it to stop, but she had no clue where to even begin! Hadn't they covered mostly everything when she went to therapy before?

A cough by the doorway interrupted her panicked inner voice. She whipped around, surprised to find Romano leaning there with his arms folded over his chest.

"O-Oh, hey," she said, relaxing a bit when she saw him. "Is something the matter?"  
"I was hoping you could tell me," he replied. When she gave him a confused look, he shut the door behind him to make sure Spain didn't drop in and focused on her with a stern gaze.

"I'm sorry, but what-"

"Earlier today, you were upset about something," he interrupted. "And don't pretend that you weren't."

"...It… has nothing to do with you or anyone else, if that's what you're wondering," she said, holding her arms now in a defensive gesture.

"...Every time I see you, you look scared or haunted by something," he sighed. "I just wanted to see if you were okay."

She noticed his face turning red a bit, but the seriousness of what he was saying seemed to make it less difficult for him. She was somewhat surprised that he said anything about it at all. She'd thought even if he did notice- even if anyone noticed- they probably wouldn't ask. Looks like she'd been wrong about that.

"I'm fine."

"Something tells me that's a lie," he countered in monotone. She stiffened a bit.

"I heard you run to the bathroom yesterday morning," he continued. "I wasn't going to say anything, until I saw shadows under your eyes today. Did you even sleep last night?"

The level of observation he possessed was beyond what she had been expecting. Heck, it was beyond what she ever would have expected, especially from him. Who paid that much attention?

"Answer me," he demanded a bit more firmly this time.

"I-I… I just… not really, but-"

"Corytha."

The use of her name was the final breaking point. Whatever the reason for his insistence, if he wanted to know so badly, then fine.

"Alright," she said, her voice growing louder than its usual volume. He kept looking at her steadily.

"I…. I had a nightmare. I was freaking out when I woke up, so I had to cool off with water."

She was trying to find a way to hide what the nightmare had been from him. Even if she had to admit she wasn't okay, she refused to give him the details of the distress.

"I had a similar nightmare just a few days ago, so… I think the reoccurring nightmares I had a while ago are starting to come back again. I get scared to sleep, so I end up staying awake to avoid it, but it doesn't always work," she explained.

He just seemed to nod a bit, aware that she was withholding details, but he wouldn't pry.

"How did you get them to stop the first time?" he asked.

"Well," she rubbed the back of her head. "I don't really think I did anything… the stress in my life kind of went away, and so did the nightmares, but recently…"

Her voice faded away as she realized what she'd just admitted to both him and what she'd realized herself just now. Stress. Stress from being here- maybe that was why they'd started up again.

"...Whatever the reason, you shouldn't have to lose sleep over it," he said firmly. "If being here is causing you stress, you need to drop the touring and stay put somewhere for a while."

She sighed but nodded. She knew he was right. He'd basically said the same things her friends had- just stop moving around. That's why she was eager to return to Arthur's for the next week, though she was also happy about the past few days here.

There was just one thing she didn't quite understand.

"Not to sound rude, but… why did you even approach me about this?" she asked him. "You only met me like three days ago..."

"Do you need to know someone before you can care about their health?" he shot back. This caused her to fall silent. She hadn't thought of it like that.

"...Besides," he sighed. "You're the first visitor I've had in a while and it was… nice to have you around, even if it was short lived."

He was glaring away at the wall, his face red from the things he'd just admitted out loud. He was definitely not used to saying such things, She smiled a bit and went back to organizing her things for tomorrow morning.

"I see… I enjoyed staying here too," she replied, getting back to her usual self. "You're a lot different than what everyone seems to think, I wish they'd give you more credit. Thanks for everything… and who knows, maybe I can drop by again sometime."

Sensing that the previous discussion was now over, he decided to let her wrap things up and get to sleep, since he knew she needed it anyway. He wasn't sure himself why he'd decided to confront her about it when normally he would have let it slide. Maybe he just didn't like seeing her in a bad mood, when she seemed like the type of person who should brighten a room instead. He felt in a strange sense like he needed to keep an eye on her as he did with Spain, since the fool lacked any ability to really be aware of what was going on around him sometimes. But he would admit it was refreshing to have someone new in his life, even if she wouldn't be in this world for long. Of the three girls, she seemed like the least troublesome anyway.

Recalling her last words to him, he paused on his way out and made sure to speak in a voice just loud enough for her to hear.

"No, Ragazza… thank you."

He left before she could say anything else.

* * *

The trip to the airport wasn't long at all. Romano insisted of taking Corytha and Spain, so rather than being picked up by her friends, she would be meeting them there. She almost wished it would have taken a bit longer to get there so that she wouldn't be traveling on a plane yet again, but it wouldn't be too long of a trip. Luckily in Europe the flight times weren't that bad at all, just a few hours at most.

They stepped inside, and in no time at all her friends came running towards her out of nowhere. Sam glomped her from the side while Reagan rushed around to steady them both, the three of them laughing in their group hug. Even Italy popped over to join in, nearly sending them to the ground.

"I missed your face so much!" Sam whined, shaking her by the shoulders.

Corytha grew slightly dizzy and swiped her hands away. "It's only been a few days!"  
"A few days too long!"

"There you are, frau!"

To her dismay, she was pulled into another, slightly more crushing hug by a certain albino. She cringed and pulled away as forcefully as she could, though with his strength it proved somewhat difficult.

"H-Hello, Gilbert," she breathed, having to steady her pulse yet again. Romano glared at him from afar, but he took no notice of this.

Japan just smiled to her and bowed a bit in greeting, while Germany gave her a curt nod.

"If we're done with the reunion, we should probably go catch our flights," he said. The girls would be sent back to England on their own while the others returned to their respective countries until the next meeting. Which, as they'd recently learned, would probably be the last world meeting for a while. The only reason they'd even had so many in the past few weeks was due to a few specific problems that they delayed in figuring out so far.

"Right," Reagan nodded, going to stand by Sam. "We gotta get back and unpack for a little while."

"I'm gonna hibernate for days," Sam said, stretching her arms over her head.

Corytha laughed a bit but stood by her friends while they were handed their tickets for the flight home. She glanced down when Prussia gave her a ticket, absentmindedly reading it until she came across something a bit odd.

 _Wait, that's…_ She glanced over to the ticket in Reagan's hand and furrowed her eyebrows, glancing over to Prussia.

"Hey," she said, catching his attention, "I think you gave me the wrong ticket?"

Everyone stopped for a moment.

Suddenly the german was grinning like the cheshire cat. She felt herself go numb on the inside. Whatever this was, it wasn't good.

"Actually, you have the right one," he said, flashing up his own ticket while Spain did the same. They both had the same ones that she did- all flights to France. The numbness spread from her veins to her skin.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** So basically what happened is I finished this story last year, started college, and vanished off the face of the planet. Sorry to anyone who was hoping I'd post more chapters! I'm uploading the rest of the story today, so that way it's at least a finished thing. I may come back eventually and polish it up to match my current writing style which has changed, but I'm working on an actual novel, so my stories for fun will come to a stop including fanfiction.


	9. Chapter 9- Next Destination

"Alright, what's going on here?" Germany said sternly, glaring at his brother. "I told you to get three flights to England!"

"Don't worry about it, West!" Prussia exclaimed, flinging an arm around the blonde girl's shoulders, much to her discomfort. She was too stunned to move away.

"France invited us to come over until the next meeting, so we thought we'd bring the chica along with us!" Spain smiled innocently, oblivious to the irritation from both the girls' friends and Germany, even Romano.

"We planned this so no one else would know," Prussia waved a hand in dismissal. "Anyway, she's coming with us, the rest of you may leave."

"What the hell!" Sam exclaimed, prepared to have at him until Corytha got to it first. She pulled away from Prussia and glared at him, her face heating up a bit in anger.

"Don't I get a say in this?!" she spat. "I was just gone for a week, and now you want to drag me somewhere else again?"

"Oh, don't freak out!" he rolled his eyes. "It won't be a trip like this one, we'll just be hanging out!"

"Right! We thought you could come with us now in case we don't get a chance later," Spain explained, as though it were an easy conclusion to come to. To some extent it was, but without her permission? And they'd already gone and bought the ticket? Not to mention France was probably expecting her now. This was even worse than Italy's mistake… and this time it was intentional!

"I can't believe you did this," she seethed, running a hand through her hair.

"Idiota!" Romano yelled, thumping Spain on the back of the head with his free hand. Spain barely seemed to mind.

"Gilbert, you really should have asked her first," Germany almost seemed to growl. "Not to mention you already bought a ticket that might not be used."

"Aw, come on!" Prussia complained, giving Corytha a somewhat pleading look. "You've got to come with us!"

"No, quite frankly, I don't!" she shot back, arms folded over her chest. It was hard for her to get mad at someone, but in this instance? He deserved it. Reagan and Sam continued to stand by, unable to do anything that would be of help.

"Please?" Spain joined in, giving her his own version of puppy dog eyes. She hardly acknowledged them for the moment.

"All I wanted to do was get back and not have to worry about anything for the next week," she mumbled, scowling to herself in frustration. "And besides, what clothes am I supposed to wear? These are all dirty now!"

"We can just wash them at France's house!"

"Does he know you pulled this stunt?!"

"He should," Prussia laughed, "He was the one who planned it!"

This caused her to clench her jaw, and a sharp pain forced her to loosen it quickly. Of course she should have known- the BTT was in it together, as she'd suspected from the start. But when they'd talked to her over text a while ago about wanting to hang out, she hadn't known they'd go to such lengths to force her hand.

She glanced to Germany for help, to which he only shook his head. It was up to her to figure this out, she couldn't be forced either way. In the end she glared at Prussia, feeling very hurt by what was happening, but she knew she wouldn't forgive herself if she let them waste both the ticket and their efforts to bring her along. Even if it meant more stress for herself.

"First of all," she finally said, counting off on her fingers now, "I expect an apology from you at some point, preferably sooner than later, for holding everyone up right now _and_ for failing to talk to me about this first."

Both Prussia and Spain seemed to stand up a bit taller, surprised at what she was doing.

"Second of all, the next time you pull a stunt like this, I will be automatically inclined to say no. Is that understood?"

They nodded a bit dumbly. But finally she sighed and got to the third point.

"Third, if you really want me to go, I'll go."

Their faces brightened only for a moment before she cut them off, jabbing a finger towards them.

"But I reserve the right to leave at any time, and I will not be running around every single day, nor will you expect me to spend every moment I have around you three!"

To everyone's surprise, they suddenly bursted out into laughter, amused by the authoritative stance she'd tried to take in the situation. Her finger drooped a bit, as did her eyelids.

 _They're not going to take me seriously, are they?_ She thought in worry. What had she just agreed to?

"O-Okay, chica," Spain laughed, patting her on the shoulder lightly. "We understand."

"Y-Yeah, right," Prussia added. She gave them another glare but decided to withhold any other choice words she wanted to say to them right now.

This was not going to be her week, she could just tell.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Sam asked after her friends had pulled her aside. Everyone was almost done saying their goodbyes.

"Yeah, we can get you a ticket to come back with us," Reagan insisted, genuinely concerned for her friend's wellbeing now. It was one thing for her to be with Spain and Romano. But for her to be alone with what they called the Bad Touch Trio, she might become overwhelmed. Not that they were dangerous by any means- she just wasn't sure her friend would be able to handle them on her own if they got too careless.

"I'm not happy about this either," Corytha sighed. "But he already bought the ticket… I'll never hear the end of it if I refuse."

"Don't just go because you don't know how to say no," Sam said firmly. "If you really don't want to, put your foot down!"

"It's alright, Sam," the blonde insisted. _I hope._ "If they do anything profoundly stupid, I'll call you."

"If you say so… but as soon as they do anything to upset you, you call me and we'll get you back! Got it?"

"Got it."

"Take it easy," Reagan added, giving her friend a concerned look. "Try not to do too much, okay?"

"Okay. Shouldn't be too hard," she laughed a bit.

Nearby, Romano had pulled Spain aside and was holding him by the collar of his shirt, giving him the usual glare.

"Listen, tomato bastard, just make sure they don't do anything stupid!" he said with a scowl. "I don't trust either of them and she doesn't need anymore crap right now!"

"Don't worry, Lovi!" Spain beamed, his usual self. "She'll be fine!"

"She better be! And don't call me that! If that Frenchman tries to pull anything-"

"Oh, don't be so negative! It's just the three of us, what could happen?"

"That's exactly the problem," Romano growled, more to himself than to Spain. "And there's one other thing you should keep an eye on."

"Hm? What is it?"

He finally let go of him and folded his arms over his chest, trying to make sure the spaniard understood the seriousness of what he was saying. "I want you to keep an eye on her sleeping habits while she's over there."

Spain seemed a bit taken aback by the request. "What for? Is there something wrong?"

"She's been having some trouble with dreams lately. She might start sleeping less and less."

"Aw," Spain said, slightly disheartened at the news. "That's no good… I guess I can try, then. No one should lose out on their rest."

"Good."  
"It's actually kind of sweet to see you concerned, Lovi!" Spain smiled yet again. "You aren't usually like this!"  
"Shut up!"

"Alright, enough with the chit-chat! We need to get going!" Prussia finally announced, pulling Spain away and standing over by Corytha. The others regrouped opposite to them to see them off.

"Just don't do anything reckless," Germany sighed.

Corytha smiled genuinely at Romano and decided to thank him one last time before setting off.

"Thanks again for everything," she said to him off to the side, remembering their conversation from the night before. He gave her a faint smile before his features seemed to harden again, back to his usual demeanor.

"If they do anything stupid, text me," he stated. They'd shared numbers on the way to the airport, so she could contact him now. She laughed a bit.

"Will do, Lovino."

"Come on Corytha! We have to leave!"

She cringed a bit at Prussia's voice and turned away, beginning to follow them to what would either be a neutral or unpleasant week.

"And take care of yourself, damn it!"

She couldn't refrain from smiling at Romano's last words to her as she stepped off into the crowd behind Spain and Prussia. At least she knew she had someone else on her side now.

They soon boarded the plane and got to their seats. Luckily she got a window seat, so she didn't end up stuck between them as she'd feared. Spain was beside her, with Prussia next to him, giving her an extra blockade from the one who had still failed to apologize for doing this behind her back. The others shared the blame, sure, but he's the one who'd bought the tickets.

* * *

The first thing Corytha thought when they pulled up to France's house was to wonder how much more flamboyant the man could possibly be. Needless to say, his house reflected his personality rather well. It would probably be even more shocking on the inside. The pristine natural gardens around it alongside the fountains and benches were only the start of what would probably be a very lavish interior. She was half tempted to expect him to boast about these things later, to which she'd have to block it out of her head. Good-natured pride was one thing- but sometimes he seemed a step closer to arrogance, and that was a quality she could not quite stand in others.

After gathering her things, she followed them towards the front door. It opened before they'd even reached it, and France nearly seemed to drift across the ground as he approached them.

While they were busy saying their hellos, she stood off awkwardly to one side and glanced around the large space in an attempt to occupy herself with something.

 _Now that I'm thinking about it, the Bad Touch Trio wasn't really a thing in the show,_ she thought curiously, glancing over at them for a moment. _That was a fan-made thing… wasn't it? They were only together in like… one episode._

She looked away again, only to be taken by surprise when they finally seemed to remember she was there and came over. France grasped her wrist and practically flew into her range of vision, though his proximity caused her to stumble back a step or two. After a quick kiss to the hand, he gave her one of his signature smiles and a wink.

"Corytha, how nice it is to see you again! I hope you've been well?"

After blinking at him dumbly for a moment, she snapped out of it and glanced away, wary of everyone around her.

"Y-Yeah, I guess," she murmured.

"Well let's not stand around here- come, let me show you around!" he suddenly threw an arm around her shoulders and started to move her inside, though she quickly peered over her shoulder to where she'd left her things. Spain had picked them up for her and was beaming at her now.

Just as she'd predicted, she was given a pretty extensive tour of his house, which was larger than any of the previous ones she'd been to. There was some story to go with just about every single room aside from the closets, and he took pride in the designs, which to her surprise wasn't quite as flashy as she'd been thinking. It was more elegant, if she had to pick a word for it. It wasn't hard remembering how to get around, either- she'd thought it would be confusing. Instead it was quite self-explanatory.

Overall, though she hated to admit it, he had an eye for interior design. The atmosphere wasn't bad, either. She could tell a lot about a person just by the way a house was kept. It was bright and organized, and she felt a certain level of calm just wandering down the hall.

By the end of it, he finally showed her to the room she'd be staying in. Even the guest bedrooms were a bit grand- the bed in particular was larger than any she'd stayed in before. It almost looked like she would sink into it completely.

"This room is all yours," France said, leaving the doors wide open for everyone to step in. Spain set her things down next to the bed, to which she thanked him. She wondered why the others had followed them around the whole house, seeing as they'd likely been there before. They'd probably heard the whole tour for themselves at some point.

"Oh right!" Spain suddenly piped up, all smiles as usual. "I think she said something about needing her clothes cleaned, didn't you?"

They turned to look at her. Instantly she felt her anxiety beginning to rise. This was definitely going to be more bothersome than Romano's house.

"W-Well… I didn't get a chance to pack anything else, and I've worn everything by now," she said quietly, pulling at her shirt with her arms folded across her torso.

"No problem! Gilbert, you know where to put it, right?"

The albino grabbed her suitcase and left the room with Gilbird right behind him, yelling something about how of course he knew where everything was in the house by now. Spain- or Antonio, as he was addressed- followed behind him to go back downstairs. It seemed the formalities were just about over and they were ready to kick back and do whatever it was they normally did while they stayed here. This left her alone in the room with France. Before he could say anything, she decided to clarify something.

"S-So what do I call you?" she asked hesitantly, glancing up towards him.

"Ah, Francis will be fine," he smiled. Then he held his arms out and did almost a twirl as she sorted through the things in her bag, making sure she had all her things. "So what do you think of my place, hm?"

"It's nice," she replied, turning on her cell phone. "Different from what I thought it would be… it's, um… elegant."

He seemed to beam at her words. "Yes, well that's what I go for~" Though he started to babble on about taste and style in comparison to other people, she sighed to herself and gave him a tired look, which he hardly seemed to notice at first.

"Hey," she intervened after a few minutes. He paused.

"Hm?"

"What did you guys have in mind for this next week?" she asked.

"Well, just about the usual… we mostly just try to relax and have a good time, and we go out every now and then."

She looked out the window, and for the first time she realized just how tired she actually felt after the past few weeks. All she wanted was peace… rest and reassurance that they'd get back alright. With no updates whatsoever on the spell, she was beginning to wonder if he'd made any progress at all.

"...That was a rotten thing to do," she suddenly said. "Making plans to bring me here without my consent."

France's expression faltered only slightly, though she wasn't sure he really felt all that bad about it. She was here now, they'd gotten what they wanted, after all.

"We just figured you'd be free, and then you have next week's meeting and everything… if you didn't get to visit with us, it would have been such a let down," he tried to reason. He was trying to stack up the pity points.

"You do realize that the only reason we're here is because of a mistake?" she replied, giving him a stern look. "My friends might enjoy the traveling, but right now our entire lives rest on Arthur being able to make a spell to send us home. It's stressful enough coming to terms with being in a different world without having to jump from place to place and adjust to everyone's homes… I appreciate you letting me stay here, but I still wish you would have asked me first. The only reason I even accepted at the airport was because Prussia had already bought the dang ticket!"

She turned away and heaved another sigh, gripping her arms tightly to try and relieve the frustration she was feeling. She was finally reaching a breaking point with all this mess.

The hand placed on her shoulder moments later caused her to cool off just a bit.

"I'm sorry if it really bothered you," he said. "We didn't know you felt that much stress towards this… all three of you seemed alright before."

"...My friends are more okay with this than I am," she murmured. "But they're the optimistic ones… me, not so much."

There was a brief silence, so she decided to continue, not entirely sure how they'd gotten to a conversation like this so soon. The last time they'd spoken was introductions back at the last meeting.

"...He hasn't said anything about the spell yet… I know he said it would take a few months, but you'd think he'd have some kind of news by now... If this takes longer than he thinks it will… if he can't even figure something out at all, then-"

"He'll figure something out soon enough."

She paused and looked at him in surprise. He was smiling.

"Arthur and I have never really seen eye to eye, but if there's one thing I know, it's that he doesn't stop trying… he can be stubborn like that. He was able to get you here in the first place, even if it was an accident- he'll find a way to get you back. Or at least he won't stop until he gets an answer."

"...Do you think so?" she asked.

"I know it." he lightly squeezed her shoulder and turned her away from the window, guiding her to the door to go downstairs. "Try not to dwell on it so much… it won't make anything happen sooner."

His words would echo in her mind for quite some time.

* * *

Staying at France's house with the BTT wasn't nearly as bad as she'd thought it would be, though they still gave her trouble from time to time. Their time was spent in a pretty lax fashion. For a short while they would watch shows, but unlike Romano, France wasn't entirely eager to sit around inside all day. He preferred conversation or a stroll outside, and a couple days they walked around the streets of Paris, mostly to get outside and enjoy the sights and sounds. It had an energy all its own, Corytha had noted. But that was the extent of it, so she'd had plenty of time to recuperate, sometimes on her own in her room. There she would draw and play on her apps for a short while, or sing quietly to some music while texting her friends about the day. They kept asking her how things were as if they'd expected something to go wrong.

After her conversation with France the first day, it seemed the Frenchman was eager to keep her mind off of her situation whenever he could, asking her about her hobbies or other random things. She ended up talking more than she thought she would. He'd even let her help with the cooking once or twice, insisting that she watch and learn, though really she just tended to the smaller things he requested.

Spain was as happy-go-lucky as he usually seemed while Prussia had taken to messing with her from time to time. His favorites seemed to be sneaking up quietly from behind and grabbing her shoulders, or abruptly showing up at her side on the couch or otherwise. He openly explained his reasoning for doing this, which- to her dismay- was because he found her reactions funny. She started taking extra care to check over her shoulder every now and again, but he always found a way around it. As far as the others were concerned, no harm was being done.

It wasn't all fun and games, though. In the short time she'd been there, she had two nightmares within three days. She was getting to bed later now, usually around two or three in the morning, though she had managed to hide the fact so far. For some reason Spain kept checking in with her as soon as she'd gotten up- she'd had a close call with him in the hallway when she was hurrying to fix herself up in the bathroom one of those times. She was certain he knew something was up after that, because he'd popped into her room when he was going to bed that same night.

She tried to hold onto France's words from before. She wanted to believe that patience was all she needed right now, until they received some sort of news. No matter how hard she tried, deep down she wasn't in a good place. She knew this. Not only was she worried about this, but now she was worried about going back. She had even started to question herself, wondering if she could even handle it. All it had taken was the nightmares to get her going again. Everything felt like it was falling apart around her, and she couldn't place why.

Which is where she found herself now, on the sixth night, staring out the window with tired eyes. They were watching some movie downstairs that she'd decided to skip this time. She needed more and more time to herself lately. It didn't help that Sam had texted her saying that England had something to tell them at the meeting in a few days, but had refused to specify what, exactly. Whatever it was, she had a feeling it was important, and had it been a way to get home, he would have said so. It was eating away at her confidence until she felt like staying shut away all day- not that any of the trio would have allowed that to happen.

 _What if something's gone wrong?_ She wondered, picking at the skin around her fingers. She hissed a bit at the pain and stopped herself, staring as a tiny pool of blood developed there. She hadn't had her nervous habits in quite some time, but they were coming back full force now.

Just as she sighed, her iphone lit up with a message. Her eyebrows furrowed as she picked it up to investigate.

Who it was from caused her to roll her eyes a bit.

* * *

Prussia: "why don't you come down here and watch the movie? it's really good!"

Corytha: "I've missed most of it anyway, what would the point of that be?"

Prussia: "to watch the rest of it with the awesome me"

Corytha: "Not convincing enough, sorry."

Prussia: "c'mon frau, you've been up there for hours now D:"

Corytha: "Yes, and I'll stay up here until tomorrow."

Prussia: "but francis even brought out dessert…"

Corytha: "And that's supposed to convince me… how?"

Prussia: "mein gott, not even dessert will make you get out of there?"

Corytha: "Nope."

Prussia: "don't make me come up there myself!"

Corytha: "No problem. Stay downstairs then."

Prussia: "alright, that's it. OMW!"

* * *

She blinked in a moment of confusion before realizing that he'd meant it. O-M-W must have meant 'on my way.' She still didn't exactly understand why he cared to do things like this, it wasn't as if he considered her a good friend, as far as she knew. Unless he was still searching for reactions from her, which there were still plenty of probably.

The seriousness of his statement only hit her once she heard footsteps pounding closer to her door.

 _Crap, he really was serious,_ she thought in a brief moment of panic. Leaping to her feet, she hurried to lock the door only to have it thrown open before her eyes. Prussia was standing there, his face a mixture between frustration and some sort of determination.

"Alright frau, you're coming downstairs!" he stated, reaching to grab her arm. Assuming he was going to drag her down there if he managed to take hold, she quickly pulled back and stared him down.

"Look, I don't need to watch your darn movie," she said. "You really enjoy messing with me, don't you?"

"Well yes, but I don't see what that has to do with the movie," he replied in confusion.

"It has to do with you just leaving me alone for once!" she shot back. "Why can't you just mess with someone else for a change?"

"Because you're more entertaining," he laughed before shaking his head. "Anyway, you've done this for three days now. Doesn't it get boring up here after a while?"

"Not really," she muttered. "I'm just fine up here."

"Nonsense," he spat quickly, snagging her by the forearm and pulling her out of her room. She fought only a part of the way before giving up, begrudgingly allowing him to lead her downstairs to where the others were waiting. They'd paused the movie, probably after the albino had left to retrieve her. Despite her protesting she ended up in between him and France on the couch with Spain seated on the floor in front of her- quite literally she was trapped on all sides.

When the movie ended in the next half hour, Corytha stayed put while they got dessert for themselves. Though a plate had been delivered to her, she merely stared at it for a few minutes before slowly taking a bite, not even pretending to hide a lack of interest.

This particular habit was nothing new, as over the past two days she'd eaten far less than she normally did. France couldn't convince her to eat more, and to be honest she could tell he was worried, though he hadn't yet said anything. She had no idea that was about to change.

An uneasy silence had settled in the living room. After a moment she glanced over and watched as Spain walked over and sat beside her. He had a sad sort of smile on his face, causing her to sit up and look around towards the others. France was at her other side with Prussia in the adjacent chair, practically staring at her.

"...Is there any particular reason you all look like something serious has happened?" she suddenly said, giving all of them a concerned glance.

"That all depends on you, chica," Spain replied.

"...I'm sorry, have I done something?" she murmured, pushing her plate away a bit and holding her arms close to her body.

"It's what you haven't been doing that concerns us," France said.

She looked over, her expression beginning to fall.

"You're terrible at hiding things," he smiled a bit. "You haven't been yourself for a few days now."

"I-I… look, it's great that you seem to care, but it's nothing important," she began, going to get to her feet. Spain caught her arm.

"Please don't leave," he insisted. "We just want to know why you've been so out of it lately… no one just stops eating and sleeping for good reason!"

"Yeah, you shouldn't be doing that," Prussia said, looking slightly stern. She could almost see him using that against Germany when he was younger to scold him.

"If you don't want to talk about it, we won't push it," France intervened. "But when someone starts eating less and withdraws from people, it just seems safe to assume something is bothering them."

She sighed, running a hand through her hair. Of all times to talk about this, why did it have to be with the three of them there? If anything she should be having this conversation with her closest friends, not three guys who might as well have been strangers. She'd come to know them a bit better over the last week, or at least considered them acquaintances, but a serious conversation like this she hadn't planned on.

"Is this still about the stress?" France asked.

"A little bit? I don't know..." she murmured.

"Are you homesick?"

"Yeah, but… nothing much I can do about that now," she admitted, trying to force the other emotions away. There was honestly so much going on in her head that it overwhelmed her trying to figure out where to begin.

"Did anything happen lately to make things worse?"

"..." For a moment she wasn't going to answer that question until she realized that Sam's text had probably not helped. "Um… well… Sam… sent me a message two days ago," she admitted, clutching her hands together in her lap. "She said that Arthur had something to tell us… apparently it's important."

After a moment of no reply, she shared her remaining thought on the matter.

"And I don't think he's found us a way home, so whatever it is, I'm not sure it's good."

"Ah, there's something," France said more to himself than to anyone else.

"I can't help but think something bad has happened," she added. "So I just… can't stop thinking about it, is all."

"You know you can talk to us about anything, right?"

Corytha looked at Spain and tilted her head a bit, wondering where that had come from.

"I know you don't know us that well, but I feel like we've at least become friends in the last week," he explained. "And anyway it's just disheartening to see you so tired these days..."

Sensing the honesty in his voice, she gradually felt the walls surrounding her heart breaking down. Even if there was no way she could reveal the darkest depths of her feelings, there were a few things she would be willing to get off her chest, if only for them to not feel so concerned anymore.

"...You sound like you have something specific in mind," she observed.

"I heard a thing or two about you maybe having some bad dreams lately?"


	10. Chapter 10- Intervention and Surprises

"How did you know about that?" she asked, slightly caught off guard that he knew about the dreams she'd been having.

He smiled gently and closed his eyes. She could tell he was slightly reluctant to say, but she also knew he wouldn't lie, either.

"To be honest, Romano told me to keep an eye on you for that exact reason," he said. "I guess he knew you were having them!"

She blinked, dumbfounded. He'd told Spain about it? True, she hadn't told him to keep it a secret, but… it just seemed like she shouldn't have had to tell him that. Or anyone, for that matter.

"You're having nightmares?" France gasped lightly.

"I-It's not that bad," she stammered.

"But you looked really scared that one morning," Spain recalled. "You had tears on your face…"

 _Crap!_ She thought. _He saw it, then…_

"What could you be dreaming of that's scaring you so bad?" Prussia asked. He hadn't said much during this exchange, if only for the fact he wasn't sure how to proceed. It still meant a lot that he hadn't wandered off to do his own thing by now. "That's not the same dream you had when we were at Italy's, is it?"

Her eyes widened. How did he still remember that?  
"..."

"These are recurring nightmares, then?" France clarified. She could only nod, her lower jaw hanging a bit loose from shock at everything that was unfolding right now.

"How many have you had?"

"...About five," she admitted. "Two in the past four days…"

"Hm, so they're increasing in frequency…"

"When did you guys turn into some sort of dream analysis team?" she attempted to joke, only earning herself a gentle smile.

"It's not really the first time we've had to deal with this," Spain grinned. Suddenly she looked around at the three of them and realized: all of them had probably dealt with bad dreams before. Not only themselves, but with those they took care of. Spain had Romano, Prussia had Germany, and if what she'd read was true, France maybe had Canada. Maybe this wasn't the first time they were having a conversation like this… well, at least in theory.

"Oh… right," she replied absentmindedly.

"What are these dreams about?" France asked.

"..." she sighed. There was no way she could admit the details… or at least, she couldn't let them know the truth. She'd have to play it off somehow.

"It… usually starts with me being stuck in some dark room," she hesitantly began. "It's nighttime… and everything is quiet. Then out of nowhere there are footsteps coming towards the door, and someone comes inside… some guy, I think…"

Just having to recount the memory at all was causing her to shake a bit, her expression one of clear discomfort at having to explain this. It wasn't even accurate and it still haunted her to say these things out loud. If they knew the truth, she wondered what they would say… how they would react. She would never know.

"H-He… approaches around the bed with a knife in his hand…" she murmured. "And he just stands there for a short time… before… before he attacks…"

Spain was grasping one of her hands now, shocked by what she was describing. It seemed worse than he thought it had been.

"T-The pain just… i-it feels so real," she breathed. "Like fire melting me from the inside…"

"Can you recognize the man's face?"

She shook her head. She knew she was lying, but they couldn't know. They couldn't know that the man she'd seen was her Uncle… that the nightmare was actually kind of a memory instead. Domestic abuse was not on the list of things she wanted to talk to them about… or anyone outside of Reagan and Sam, for that matter.

"R-Romano thinks it's only happening because of stress," she brought up, in hopes of changing the course of the discussion. "I had these nightmares a while ago and then they stopped… so maybe they're just coming back because of me being here, I don't know."

"Stress could definitely be making it worse," Spain thought aloud, looking thoughtful. "Is that why you wanted to start doing less?"

She nodded. "When I told my friends about how I was feeling, they told me I shouldn't do so much traveling right now… that's why I ended up being sent to Romano's. But even being here and not doing much hasn't made the dream stop happening…"

"Ooooh," Prussia suddenly said, as if a lightbulb had just come on in his head. She guessed he was probably recalling her stubbornness from last Wednesday. "I get it now…"

"Well you said Sam sent you that message a few days ago, maybe that stress was enough to make it happen again," France suggested.

She shrugged. "I don't know… all I know is that when I have dreams like that I just… I don't want to sleep because I don't want it to happen again… it hurts too much."

It hurt more than they could imagine.

"I understand why you've been sleeping less, but the stress is impacting more than your night life, amiga… you can't start eating less, too. You'll let yourself fall apart," Spain reasoned.

France placed a steadying hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him.

"I know you must be feeling more things than we can imagine," he said. "And I can't promise that whatever Arthur has to say will be alright… but if you don't take care of yourself, you'll only make things worse. You can't think straight on less sleep and an empty stomach. If you stop taking care of yourself physically, you'll hurt yourself even more."

"Right. You need to at least try to eat properly and get more rest… and stop isolating yourself in your room!" Prussia said. "If anything you should be spending more time around others!"

"Yeah, you have more friends than you think!" Spain smiled reassuringly.

She laughed a bit.

"You guys are countries," she replied in a disbelieving voice. "You have better things to do with your time than worry about a few teenage human girls… to be honest I'm not even sure how we're having this conversation right now. I'm not worth your time."

"That's where you're wrong!" Prussia quickly dismissed the idea.

"As far as we're concerned, you're a friend to us," added Spain.

"Oui, you know who we are and you've spent some time with us… by now I would call you a friend."

As everyone seemed to nod in agreement, she looked between them and found no signs of hesitation. They meant what they'd said. Was making friends really that simple? And as countries, was it just as easy as it seemed to be for normal people? Grant it, they didn't get many opportunities to meet new people, unless a new country came along. It just seemed so sudden. Then again, they had hung out quite a bit during her first few days there… and they'd texted on and off even before then. They were easy to get along with, even if at first they'd been intimidating. Really they weren't scary in the slightest. Perhaps she'd been wrong to assume she didn't mean much to them after so short a time.

"I… I didn't know you guys thought of me as a friend," she ventured. "I guess I'm not really used to it… Reagan and Sam are the only friends I've had for a while."

"Ah, but making friends is so easy!" Spain beamed. "You even befriended Romano in just a few days! I think you just have that effect on some people."

 _Even Romano is my friend?_ She thought. Well, it would make sense… they'd exchanged numbers afterwards, and he'd checked up on her once or twice since then. Not to mention he seemed to care for her wellbeing at random times. His words from the airport still make her want to laugh a bit.

"I… I guess I just didn't think making friends with anyone here would be that easy… sure, Arthur said something about people wanting to show us around-"

"Bah, is it really that hard to see?" Prussia interrupted. "It's not like we're that different you know. We can make friends like any human!"

Spain started to laugh a bit at her facial expression, as she seemed so surprised by the statement.

"S-Si, I mean what did you think would happen if you stayed with us this week? Like we'd just ignore you?"

"W-Well, no! I just didn't… I mean I don't…" she didn't know how to respond to this. Had she been overestimating things the whole time? "Like at that first meeting, you guys and a few other people wanted my number, I…"

"And what did you think that was for?" Prussia laughed, It seemed they were growing more amused by the second. "You think people just exchange numbers for the heck of it?"  
"I don't know, maybe!" she threw her arms up in the air, slightly exasperated now.

Spain patted her on the back lightly now, wiping away a tear from his eye.

"I think you're thinking about this way too hard," he chuckled. "Anyone who came up to you at that meeting wants to get to know you, that's why they wanted your number! And chances are they'd like to be friends!"

"Who else have you talked to, for instance?"

"Um… mostly Finland and Denmark, Liechtenstein hasn't said anything yet… she did seem like she wanted to hang out sometime though…"

"Exactly!" Prussia exclaimed.

"What did you think when we all got your number?" Spain asked, still trying to contain his laughter.

Deep down, Corytha herself was feeling silly. It had been a little while since she'd felt something like this… it was nice. The conversation had somehow gone from somber to lighthearted and entertaining. She felt like she was having a conversation with Reagan and Sam.

"I didn't know what to think," she laughed a bit. "I was mostly confused!"

They continued talking for the next hour, and she found herself slowly crawling back out of her shell. Though she knew she wouldn't feel better about the news until Arthur finally told them, she felt a bit better knowing that they considered her as a friend. The worry wouldn't completely go away until a solution had been found or was at least in sight… but in the meantime, they didn't want her to hurt herself with worry. She knew they were right. If she stopped taking care of herself, her mental health would decline just as fast. She needed to keep hoping… she had to believe things would be okay, and that Arthur would figure out the spell. Being pessimistic right now would only make matters worse. She knew that. Even if her intuition tugged at her gut and told her to remain wary, to not get too involved in this world and keep herself guarded, there was only so much it would do for her right now.

If the frequency of the dreams depended on stress, she needed to record when it happened. She would also need to keep up with at least two full meals a day and seven hours of sleep a night, so no more going to sleep after one in the morning. Before midnight was preferable. They didn't let her be by herself for longer than three hours in the evening, unless she really needed to get away for a few moments, but for the most part she felt like they were trying to really incorporate her into the group now in their own way. They let her pick the movies and often asked how she was feeling throughout the day. In no time at all, she really did feel welcome, which she appreciated more than she could ever explain. It was a new feeling to make friends like this without Sam there to make it happen as it had with Reagan.

* * *

Sooner than she would have liked, it was the day of the next world meeting. From what she understood, it would be the last one for a month or so, perhaps longer. The date was yet to be determined. She got her things together and enjoyed breakfast with her new friends one last time. Truth be told she was probably going to miss them for a short while, the way Prussia had started waking her up in goofy ways or how Spain randomly popped up and caused her to smile. Each of them had been trying to help her in their own ways. At first she'd thought she would feel intimidated or unhappy during her stay there. Back at the airport, all she could think of was how strange things might get, since she'd heard and read so many things back in their world. In the end it was actually her favorite stop yet, aside from Romano's house. She felt like she'd actually accomplished something somehow, even if it was as simple as having three new friends now. They were nothing like everyone tried to make them out to be; just three goofy friends having a good time together, nothing more, nothing less.

She was in the middle of telling Spain and Prussia about one of the characters she'd designed when they pulled up to where the meeting was being held. She remembered the building quite well- though it often escaped her where they actually were. Sooner or later she'd need to carry a map!  
"Alright, here we go," Spain said, pulling out her suitcase. Her things would be left with her friends' in the lobby until it was decided where they were going. She'd nearly forgotten that they were supposed to be sent off somewhere else after this.

When she walked into the lobby with Prussia's arm around her shoulder and Spain at her side with her suitcase while France followed just behind, Sam's jaw nearly dropped. Corytha didn't even seem phased by it, looking at him with a gentle smile on her face- one she had when around Sam or Reagan themselves. Reagan beamed and waved, to which the blonde quickly parted from her group and hurried over to them. They embraced in a group hug.

"Oh my god, you look great!" Reagan exclaimed, holding Cori by her shoulders. After sticking to her new routine for sleep and keeping up with her eating, she'd been restored to a more normal appearance, her eyes more lively than they were before.

"So do you! How are you guys?" Corytha asked, smiling at them both.

"We're great, we just hung out back at England's," Sam shrugged. "Watched movies and asked questions, kind of boring stuff. What about you though? You looked pretty buddy-buddy with them when you came in!"

She smiled a bit, looking down in almost a fond way. "Well, I guess you could say I made a few new friends…."  
"Really?!" Reagan asked, her eyes widening. "That's great!"

"Way to go!" Sam grinned. "I was thinking you were screwed when you first left on that plane!"

At this, the blonde frowned. "Gee, thanks, Sam."  
"Hey, you can never be too careful!"

As they started to catch up with each other and talk about what had happened while they were apart, the meeting had started, leaving them with the lobby to themselves for quite some time. They even managed to find a channel on the tv with funny homemade videos, and they had to force themselves to contain their laughter to not disturb whatever was going on in the large room behind them. With what they were seeing though, it was harder than it seemed.

* * *

"And then Sadie ran into the wall, the poor thing," Reagan was laughing. "Even Arthur couldn't stop laughing!"

While the three of them were busy laughing amongst each other, they didn't hear people leaving the room behind them until they saw England standing there alongside Germany. The meeting seemed like it was still going on.

The girls sat up and calmed themselves down, meeting their confused expressions with slightly red faces. They'd been at this for a while now.

"Something up?" Sam asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Y-Yes, actually," England answered. "I think now's as good a time as any to tell you what we've discovered over the past week or so…"

Instantly they were at their feet, standing side by side and giving him expectant looks. He nearly seemed to cringe at this, for reasons they couldn't understand.

"What is it?" Reagan prompted. Behind her back, she was grasping her hands tightly. Like Corytha, the text he'd sent her had given her a bit of worry over the last few days. Sam was anxious too, but she hadn't worried about it as much, better able to handle these things than her friends.

"Well, you see…" he began nervously, attempting to hold their gazes but not really succeeding. "I've been making some progress on the spell recently… I've finally got the portal portion figured out, as far as connecting two different places goes instead of connecting to a random place."

"The problem is," he continued, "I've only managed to do that between places in this world… not places outside of it. Figuring that out is going to be much more… tricky."

"Alright, well it's a start at least," Sam shrugged.

"There's… something else we've come across," Germany cut in. England gave him a look that made the girls uneasy, but the german glared back at him in a silent command that made him sigh.

"Yes, well… recently there was some news that we can't exactly ignore…"

"What are you talking about…" Sam said in a low tone. The way he was talking right now wasn't exactly reassuring.

"...Not very long ago, there was a good portion of land- only slightly larger than Liechtenstein, mind you- claimed independence as a new collection of nations."

"A collection?" Reagan tilted her head. He nodded.

"Kind of like the United Kingdom, if you will. One larger name that constitutes several countries," he explained.

"Go on…"

"Well, that particular 'nation' has finally been setting out the ground rules… and it's divided into three portions."

Everyone suddenly stopped talking.

It was almost as if they didn't even dare to breathe. No one spoke. No one really moved, though Reagan's arms had fallen lifelessly to her sides. They all stared for several minutes with nothing but silence between them.

As the weight of what he seemed to imply settled on the girls' shoulders, Sam's eyes narrowed, fists clenched at her sides.

"Are you saying that we're supposed to be these… parts of a nation?" she demanded.

Germany shook his head. "It's only a theory, but the timing and the three pieces is too coincidental to be ignored… shortly after it was formed, you three were brought here by mistake. It's possible that somehow you three were incorporated into this process rather than new countries like us being born somewhere."

Reagan shook her head, stepping back a bit. Corytha followed, steadying herself on the nearby couch.

"But… that's not possible!" she countered. "That makes no sense! H-How could we… I mean we don't…"

"This is ridiculous," Sam rolled her eyes. "It's just a theory anyway, there's really no way to prove it!"

"...Perhaps not yet… but Sam, you seem to have forgotten what happened recently," England suddenly said. She stared back at him, beginning to shake her head.

"No… no that was nothing. It was a small cut, nothing more, nothing less."

"Sam, what's he talking about?" Reagan asked. Corytha had lost the ability to speak for now.

"..."

She held up her right hand, focusing on her index finger.

"...A few days ago I sliced my finger on a can by accident," she said. "It hurt pretty badly, but the cut was gone within half an hour."

Reagan's eyes widened.

"But that means nothing!" the redhead said, suddenly giving her friend a desperate look. "Right?"

"...It means you could very well be turning into something like us," Germany said.

They froze where they stood, unable to grasp the situation completely.

"Whatever is happening," he went on, "We can't be sure until later, but if you continue to experience fast healing and other strange things, it might be safe to assume that you three are becoming the new nation that has formed, each of you representing the three portions of it."

Reagan looked at him and quickly stepped forward, holding her hands out as if to grasp something that wasn't there.

"E-Even if we are this new nation somehow, that doesn't mean we can't go back… right?" she asked, seemingly scared to ask.

Though for a moment a breath hitched in her throat, she was relieved when Germany shook his head.

"For now, we don't think this will change your ability to return home," he said.

"It's unheard of for a nation to leave their job behind," England noted, looking unsure of his words. "To be honest, if you girls weren't in this situation, you would be considered foolish for ignoring it… but since you're technically humans with your own lives, we're going to overlook it."

"It wouldn't be fair to force you to stay as nations since your coming here was an accident in the first place," Germany agreed. "However, because of what's going on, we don't think it's a great idea for you three to be constantly moving about, either."

"Right. If someone were to figure out that you were technically a nation, they may try to steal you away for themselves… only a few of the others are aware of your status right now. The majority of them don't know, and hopefully they won't find out."

"Great, so what do we do now?" Sam folded her arms over her chest. "Are we just going to stay at your place the rest of the time?"

"A sudden change like that might make them suspicious," England admitted. "So you'll still be allowed to go somewhere else after this meeting… but we're changing up the rules a bit. You'll need to stay wherever you go until the next meeting, which won't be for a while. Also, I think it would be best if you stayed with someone who's aware of your status, just in case the others get any ideas."

"Who all knows beyond you two?" Reagan asked.

"Japan and Italy know, and I had to tell France and Prussia, since they wanted to be up to date," he rolled his eyes a bit at this. "Finland came up to me a short time ago, he seemed to figure it out for himself, so it's probably safe to assume the Nordics figured it out too."

"Great," Sam sighed. "I guess at least we don't have to worry about it for now…"

"Yeah, but… is there anything we should be doing in the meantime?" Reagan asked, tilting her head. "If we are becoming a nation, shouldn't we be taking care of some things?"

"I would stay out of it for now," Germany advised. "Best not get attached to something like this, especially if you plan on leaving. It might raise suspicion if you try to get involved."

She nodded and dropped the subject. She felt a bit guilty, knowing that she might actually have some sort of duty to her people- if they existed- but she couldn't do anything about it. This was beyond her capabilities right now… and her experience, really.

Corytha was just relieved that it wouldn't keep them from going back home, as shocking as it was. At least progress was being made, so the seriousness of his message wasn't quite as negative as she'd feared it would be.

"England, do you think you could keep us updated on how the spell is going?" Sam asked. "It was kind of stressful not hearing anything for weeks… just little updates every now and then would be nice."

He nodded, a grim smile on his face. "Alright, I'll try to remember. Sorry I didn't have much for a while there. Now the real work should begin, but I might be finished a lot sooner than I thought."

"Really?"

"Yes. I thought getting the portal to work would take a lot longer, but now all I need to do is figure out how to get to your world and back to where I found you in the first place. It should be easy to find the spot, but keeping the portal functional will be the real problem. Transporting things is harder than making the actual passage."

"That's good though," Sam tried to boost the mood. "We won't have to wander around aimlessly for too much longer."

"I suppose so, but it also means finding out the more critical parts of a spell like this," he warned. "I can't promise that what I find out will be what you're hoping for."

Reagan's expression fell a bit.

"...What does that mean?"

He took a deep breath and looked away, his face seeming to heat up a bit. "Well, um… basically what I'm saying is that magick like this can be… a bit unpredictable. It's hard to make it work the way you want it to and even harder to break boundaries a second time."

They gave him a confused look, unsure of what exactly he was trying to tell them. He sighed.

"Just know that what I might find might not be what you want," he concluded. "I'm trying as hard as I can to get everything just right, but if I test it and it doesn't work… there's at least a 65% chance that the spell I end up with will not be able to work. It's happened before when I opened a portal to another place- on the second try, there was some sort of barrier that made the spell fail."

"...You mean there's a 65% chance right now that we can't go back?" Sam bluntly restated in clearer words.

"I'm afraid so."

Reagan exchanged a wary look with her spunky friend. This wasn't what they'd been hoping to hear after all this time.

"I'm going to keep doing the best I can," England said. "I plan on having a better answer for you by the next meeting, if the rate keeps up like it has been. You won't have to wait six months anymore. I'm sorry for all of this… but right now all you can do is wait."

"Alright… thanks, Arthur," Reagan replied in a disheartened tone.

The girls had a moment of silence between them, linking hands as if to pass each other what little courage they had. The news was going to take a toll on them, that was for sure. Time was of the essence right now, and all they could do was sit it out until they were given the final verdict. It was like waiting to hear the final judgement of a trial. Unbearable and completely out of their hands.

Germany cleared his throat after another minute and began to walk back towards the meeting room.

"When you're finished in here, you may come inside at any time. The meeting is just about over, so we can figure out where you'll be for the next month."

He disappeared through the door, leaving them with England.


	11. Chapter 11- Distance

Upon Reagan's request, England let them talk amongst themselves for a short time. They had about five minutes before they needed to go inside and determine where to go next, as the meeting was over and everyone likely wanted to head home as soon as they could.

The three of them stood together in the center of the room, hands linked together as reality stilled around them.

"...So this is actually happening," Sam eventually broke the quiet between them.

"Yeah… I guess it is," Reagan replied slowly.

"This shouldn't be possible… it makes no sense," Corytha murmured. "We don't belong in this world, how could we just become a nation?"

"I guess the universe has an f'ed up sense of humor!" snapped Sam before she sighed.

"However this happened," Reagan intervened, placing a hand on Sam's shoulder to cool her down before she could start ranting. "There's no point in stressing over it… you heard them, they won't hold us to that responsibility. They know we have lives back at home, they aren't about to force us to give all that up, even if we might be this new nation."

Her friends stilled a bit at her reassuring words. At least this development wouldn't hurt them as long as no one else found out about it, and even then, if their area of land really was slightly larger than Liechtenstein, there wouldn't be much of a point in someone coming after them. Or so they hoped.

"Still, you heard what he said," Sam said, folding her arms over her chest with a displeased expression. "There's a 65% chance the spell won't work for some reason. Our lives are hinged on that fact."

"All we can do is wait and see what happens," the strawberry blonde reasoned, her eyes pleading. "We can't let that bring us down right now… at least he has the portal figured out to some extent, now he just needs to get to the trickier business. There's still a 45% chance it _will_ work. It's not impossible. If he brought us here, he can send us back, or at least I trust that he'll try."

"I just hope it's enough," Sam sighed. "I'm starting to miss all the things we wanted to do this summer before we came here. This has been really fun so far, don't get me wrong, but I mean… we _are_ teenage girls with a life ahead of us."  
Reagan laughed a bit.

"I know what you mean. I keep checking in with my grandma, she's trying to keep me upbeat about this. Some days have been hard lately but at least we can learn something from this," she replied.

"...Do you really think we'll get back home?" Corytha finally asked, voice quiet from uncertainty. Her friends smiled at her.

"One way or another, we'll get this figured out," Reagan reassured her.

"Yeah. We're in this together," Sam beamed. She smiled back, mostly just grateful that the news had finally been shared, even if it would be hard to come to terms with. She could only hope that the 45% would be enough to put her friends and herself back where they belonged with a future before them.

"We should probably head inside," Sam spoke up, heading towards the door. "They're waiting for us, I think."

"Oh, right!"  
Reagan and Corytha followed after her, staying on either side as they all stepped into the room and found themselves greeted with a large table of familiar faces. It wasn't quite so intimidating this time around, if only because they were all caught up in side conversations, so the focus wasn't on them from the start. Germany motioned them over to the head of the table where they could be seen by everyone. He cleared his throat, silencing only those closest to him. He waited until the remaining few in the back finally silenced themselves.

"We're done for today. Now, if you recall from the last meeting, some of you wished to have the girls over."  
Some voices started to speak up, only to be silenced by him again.

"There has been a change of plans," he said clearly. "They do not want to move around constantly. The spell is nearly halfway done. Since the next meeting is in a month, it's been decided that wherever they go next they will remain until the next meeting. Also, as it will probably be their last stay before going home, they should get to decide where that is."

He glanced towards them in a pointed way, reminding them of what they'd been told before coming inside. They were to stay with someone who was aware of the fact they may be a new nation, which left them with only a few choices. It seemed like they didn't have to all go to the same place, either.

"Be respectful of their decisions," he concluded sharply before standing aside. England walked over and lowered his voice so only they could hear him.

"Now remember girls, you should stay with someone who's aware of your situation… it would make things easier. You don't have to, but we can't vouch for your safety-"  
"Don't worry, I think we know what to do," Reagan reassured him with a tight smile. She glanced at Sam, who merely nodded. Corytha was a bit confused but figured she understood well enough what they all meant.

"I don't know about you guys," Sam said, letting her voice return to normal so that anyone interested in the room would hear, "but I want to make use of the rest of my time here, soo…"

She turned to face Germany and Prussia, throwing a finger out towards them.

"I need to keep in shape!" she stated, causing their eyes to widen.

"You want to stay with me and West?"

"Eeyup!"

Germany sighed. "Are you sure you want to-"

"What did I just say?" she interrupted.

He gave her a tired look. _If she turns into a second Prussia…_

"Very well. You are welcome to stay if you want. But you will not complain about your training this time!" he said sternly.

She saluted him quickly with a broad grin. "Right-o!"

Reagan felt some expectant stares on her but chose to ignore them. She'd known from the moment they'd been informed who she wanted to stay with for the remainder of their time, even though she wanted to get to know some of the other characters. If she had to choose, she knew who it would have to be.

"..." she turned to England, and he seemed slightly surprised. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to remain at your house… I don't want you to have to take care of Sadie. And if for some reason you need one of us to help with the spell to our world, I'd like to be there just in case."

For a moment he could only stare at her until he saw the resolve in her eyes. She was quite settled on her choice. He'd figured they would want to go with someone they hadn't been with yet for one last hurrah, but it seemed she was more interested in being of practical use.

"You're more than welcome to stay," he finally said. "I'm not sure how much help I'll need, if any, but I suppose we'll see."

She smiled at him before turning to Corytha. Some of the countries had already started to leave, not really interested in anything that was happening at this point, some probably disappointed that they wouldn't get a chance. America was complaining that no one wanted to hang out with him, and even Russia seemed a bit irritated in his own way. But a choice had to be made, and the blonde had no idea what to do with herself.

Her friends were splitting up yet again. If she wanted to stay with someone, either she'd have to go to Germany's, or she'd have to stay with Reagan. She was leaning away from Germany's, however, because of her physical condition. She worried she would get in the way by going there. The girl didn't want to be on her own in the next month that was so critical to their going home. She wanted one of her friends to be with her to keep her optimistic- she was already having a hard enough time. So she gradually turned to Reagan and England, and her friend saw the resolution that was gathering in her eyes.

"Corytha?"

"I…. I think I should just-"

She was interrupted by a vibration in her pocket. Her eyebrows furrowed, unsure as to why anyone would be texting her when they were probably in the same room. She decided to ignore it.

"I think I'll just go-"

Another vibration. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and locked it instead of checking the message.

"I'm trying to say I should just go with you-"

"Check your phone, dang it!"

She whipped her head around to see who had said that, only to be met with confused faces. Finally she gave in and unlocked her iphone, only to find several messages from Denmark, of all people.

* * *

Denmark: "hey, you gotta stay with us before you go! D:"

Denmark: "don't ignore me!"

Denmark: "c'mon Cor, please? it'll be really fun!"

* * *

She looked up and searched the table until she found his face. He was grinning at her brightly. Judging by Finland's smiling face beside him, as well as the patient looks on the rest of the Nordics, they'd already agreed to this. Sighing a bit, she opted to text him back rather than call out over everyone.

* * *

Corytha: "I don't know, Mathias… I don't want to impose."

Denmark: "didn't we already tell you that wasn't a problem before? O:"

Corytha: "Well… I think so, but unless they all want me there I don't want to go. Besides I'd be there for an entire month, it would get a bit hectic with six people under one roof..."

Denmark: "they don't mind at all, I already asked! and that's what would make it fun! please?"

Corytha: "Why are you texting me when we're in the same room, anyway?"

Denmark: "because I can. now tell me you'll come over!"

* * *

She shook her head a bit and looked up again, this time watching as Finland looked between the others before turning to her and giving her a thumbs up and a smile. It seemed he was aware of her hesitation. Maybe they really didn't mind if she stayed, but even so, it would be another adjustment to be with five guys on her own… grant it, she'd have a month this time… but things were already strange as it was. Would she be okay without her friends for so long? Especially now that she knew they had less than half of a chance to return home? She felt like she'd only start feeling worse with time. They shouldn't have to deal with that.

"C'mon, Corytha!"

Her eyes snapped up to meet Denmark's. He was at his feet now, having attracted a lot of the attention in the room to himself.

"Just come over to our place ,would ya?"

"It'll be fun!" Finland threw in with his usually cheerful smile.

"Well… I…"

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked over to find both of her friends. Reagan smiled at her and nodded a bit.

"You should go with them… I think you'll enjoy it," she said.

"But what about you guys?" Corytha asked, feeling slightly sad. "With what we just learned… I'm not sure I want us to be apart right now…"

"It's not like we're splitting up for good," Sam laughed. "It'll just be a month. And besides, we can always facetime!"

"Yeah, we're just a call away!" Reagan reassured her. "Go on, Cori. Go have fun."

 _I'm not sure how much fun I can have after all this,_ she thought momentarily. Then she turned back to the Nordics and nervously averted her gaze. It seemed like both her friends wanted her to go, for reasons she wasn't quite sure of. Maybe it was because they knew the Nordics were her favorite group from the show. Perhaps they thought it would cheer her up or keep her distracted enough. Whatever the reason, she knew Denmark would be a force to reckon with if she tried to refuse. The 'King of Northern Europe' would get what he wanted in the end.

"I-If you'll have me… then I'd like to go," she finally agreed. Instantly the Dane let out a shout of triumph. She sighed. Her fate was sealed. Shortly after, Norway had him by his tie, choking him for a moment to shut down his rising enthusiasm before he got too riled up.

Finland just clapped a bit as he came over and held her by the hands. "This'll be great! Now we can talk face to face!"

The majority of their conversations had been over text message, same with Denmark. The only time she'd really seen them was at the first meeting. While the rest of the Nordics came over, the remaining countries began to show themselves out while her friends stood at a distance and watched.

"Do you think she'll be alright at their house?" Sam asked.

"... I have a feeling it might be the best decision she's made," Reagan smiled a bit. "If there's anywhere she should stay for a month, I think she'd have the best time with them."  
"You really think so? I mean it'll be five guys in the same house," Sam said a bit uneasily. "She might get depressed the closer we get to figuring out if we can get home…"

"You're forgetting how they can be," Reagan countered. "If she starts feeling down, they'll probably notice pretty fast. It could be just what she needs."

"...Reagan, if the worst happens… if the spell doesn't work… what will we do?" Sam eventually asked. She hadn't wanted to ask that question with Corytha around. The blonde would probably start having dark thoughts if she hadn't already.

"...Then we have to stay here and learn how to be a nation," Reagan said. "We'll probably be sad for a good while… but once the sadness starts to fade… we'll figure it out. Either way, we have a future ahead of us and friends on our side. I think my grandmother would understand."

Sam merely nodded. Leave it to Reagan to know just what to say. Of course, their entire lives would be altered on the spot if that happened, but all the same it wouldn't be the end of them either. She'd just have to hold onto that fact.

"Right… well I guess we should say our goodbyes, too," the redhead eventually said, walking over towards Corytha and the others who remained.

Corytha's things had been loaded into the rented car for the trip back to the airport. She'd been on several planes in the last month alone, she was beginning to memorize the layout of the place. She would be sitting in the back seat of the van, so she needed to get in first, but before then she needed to part ways with her friends.

Being away from them for a month would be difficult. They'd be spread out quite the distance, all just doing what they wanted before their time ran out. Even if they had facetime, there was no doubt in her mind that she'd miss being around them, being able to spill her fears to them if she grew overwhelmed by negative thoughts. There would be no one to stop her.

"Make sure you take care of yourself," Sam said, letting go of her after a tight hug. "Make sure you're eating enough!"

"I know," Corytha smiled. "I will."

"If you need to talk to either of us at any time, just give us a call," Reagan nodded. "We'll be there in a heartbeat if you need us to."

"Got it."

"In that case, you'd better get going to catch your flight," Sam said, stepping back a bit. "Let us know when you get there!"  
"Alright, will do."

Finland walked over and smiled at her.

"Ready to go?"  
"I think so," she murmured.

"Okay! Well we're all packed, so whenever you're ready we'll head out."

"I guess we can go now, then…"

They made their way over to the van. The middle seat was pulled forward so she could squeeze her way to the back, but not before her friends called out to her and waved rapidly. She smiled a bit and returned the gesture, then pulled herself into the back of the car. Finland sat with her in the back seat. Sweden was at the wheel with Denmark babbling in the passenger seat, leaving Iceland and Norway in the middle.

Normally she would have sat in silence the entire time, but Finland seemed content to occupy her mind with various questions, things like what foods she liked and what interested her the most when going to visit places. Ideally they were questions so they could make her stay as personalized as possible. When that was out of the way, he couldn't help but ask questions about her and her friends. By now they'd already gotten to the airport and went on the plane back to their house, and she was still sitting next to him, but now Denmark and Sweden were sitting in front of them.

"So you've lived with Reagan for over a year now?"

"Yeah, her and her grandmother let me stay while I finished my schooling online," she said. "I'll be doing college online when we get back."

"That's interesting. Why did you move in with them?" he asked innocently. This caused her to stop for a moment.

"It was just… a better arrangement for me," she hesitantly answered. "Made things easier, and we were friends, so it worked pretty well. Sam moved in when summer started since they were going to college together."

"Why did you decide to do college online?"

"Oh, that... um," she awkwardly began, "I wasn't really too interested in wandering around a campus, I guess? It would just be easier for me. And then I could keep up with my commission work from home pretty easily."

"What kind of commission work?" Denmark prompted, glancing over his shoulder.

It had been nonstop questions for quite some time now. With every minute spent speaking, she was vaguely aware of the distance being put between herself and her friends. It was almost a more painful distance than being away from their world, since that was such a vast thing to fathom. Now she could mentally see herself getting farther and farther away.

In a way, she felt a bit good being able to answer all of Finland's questions. She could reply without sounding suspicious for the most part- she still didn't want to reveal her past before they left. No one else had really been curious about their lives so far- for the most part it was just eagerness to show them around or hang out, few to no questions asked.

"Artwork," she clarified, glancing towards him. "I design logos for small businesses sometimes… and I do paintings, drawings and that kind of stuff."

"That's cool! What kind of things do you usually paint?" Finland asked.

"Usually animals or flowers," she mused, now looking towards the ceiling in thought. "Sometimes scenery… it depends."

"Maybe you could make something for us," Finland laughed a bit. She smiled at him but had nothing to respond with.

At this moment the intercom came on and everyone was told to remain seated until the plane landed. It seemed that they'd reached their destination. The conversation was ended as she followed closely behind Denmark, hoping his height would make it near impossible to get lost in a crowd. Sweden was even taller than he was!

* * *

Eventually they pulled up to a large house. It was dark outside save for some lighting around the front door, but otherwise the girl couldn't wait to get inside somewhere. All of the movement had left her a bit dizzy this time.

With her suitcase in tow, she followed the group up to the house and observed what she could see of it in the night. It seemed a bit smaller than France's house, despite hosting more people. She wondered why they were in the same house if they were separate countries, but judging from what she knew they also had their own personal homes. It was a weird arrangement to some extent.

When she stepped inside, she watched them remove their shoes and she waited a moment before shyly removing her own. Finland caught sight of her and walked back over, moving everything until the shoes were lined up practically in size order. He smiled at her as he stood back up and turned to face her, taking her suitcase from her.

"Shall I show you to your room?" he asked.  
""Y-Yes please," she replied.

Their house was styled a bit differently than she'd anticipated. The second floor was almost entirely visible like a loft, with all of the bedrooms spread out evenly. The bottom floor was mostly the living room and a few other rooms at the back that she figured she wouldn't need to concern herself with. The kitchen and attached dining room were on the other side. Overall, it was a fairly simple place to navigate with a spacious interior.

Her room was the very last one in the row. It was smaller, only slightly larger than the room she'd had at home, with simple but organized furniture and light colored walls. The carpeting felt nice on her toes. Finland set her suitcase down and held his hands together a moment in thought.

"You can use anything in here that you want! I'd recommend sorting your clothes out first, I like to feel organized when I go some place new," he smiled kindly.

"Alright, I'll start with that then," she said softly, going to unpack her things.

"Need any help with that?"

She jumped a bit at the loud voice and looked over to see Denmark standing there. He'd already discarded the top layer he'd been wearing just moments ago.

"N-No thank you, I think I've got it."

"If you say so! I'm right down the hall if you think of anything!" he called before disappearing again. She blinked a bit then shook her head and started to fold her clothes into different piles. Finland was still standing there, seemingly at a loss for what to do.

"Do you need anything?" he finally asked. "You didn't eat much on the way over here."

"I'm good, I ate a lot beforehand," she laughed nervously, momentarily dropping the lid of her case. She gulped and opened it, hoping he hadn't noticed her mishap.

It was a bit nerve wracking to be staying here with her favorite characters. Not to mention that she was terrified of messing up somehow, be it some cultural etiquette misunderstanding or anything else. She would be here for a month- plenty of time to do something she shouldn't on accident. And there were five of them here, so it would be even more embarrassing if she did…

"Cori?"

She flinched and clutched the clothes she was holding even tighter.

"Y-Yeah?"

"Are you okay? Your hands are shaking…"

The girl looked down and discovered a light trembling in her arms. She hadn't realized her nerves were this bad. She must have looked like a quaking leaf to him for several minutes there.

"I'm alright," she murmured.

He walked over and took the clothes from her arms, placing them into the drawer she'd opened. He continued to do this while she folded clothes until all of her things were put away in an orderly fashion- he even found places for her sketchbook and other items. When they were finished, she took a look around at the space that was hers for now and felt a bit better knowing where everything was.

"It's been a while since someone's occupied this room," Finland observed cheerfully. "It'll be nice having someone else around for a change!"

"It's a really nice home you've got," she said quietly. "How long have you all been staying here together?"

"Oh, quite a few years now," he admitted. "We didn't plan on it at first, but it grew on us pretty fast, all of us staying here. We still have our own homes too, but here things are just more lively!"

She could see that.

"Are you feeling a bit better now?" he suddenly asked. She looked at him in surprise.

"Pardon?"

"You were shaking a few minutes ago, is all…"

"Oh, that…" she glanced away in embarrassment and rubbed at her arm. Before she could come up with a logical response, he stepped over and steadied her by the shoulder. She couldn't help but meet his eyes. For a moment she was almost stunned by the unexpected warmth that she found there.

"You can relax, Cori," he said. "There's no need to be so nervous!"

Somehow it wasn't surprising that he knew exactly what had happened.

"I-I just… don't want to mess things up…" she sighed, face flushed slightly red.  
"But you're a really nice person!" Finland smiled. "Don't worry, you won't mess anything up."

"Okay," she murmured, still not quite sure of herself. "But if I do something wrong, please correct me..."

He only beamed at her and moved back towards the door.

"It's getting a bit late, I think you should get some rest for now."

"Yeah, sleep sounds nice-" she broke into a yawn and quickly covered her mouth. Finland held back a laugh at her facial expression and began to close her door behind him.

"Goodnight, Corytha!"

"Goodnight, Timo."

As soon as he closed the door, she released her breath and collapsed onto the bed, staring at the ceiling in dismay.

 _Less than half an hour here and I'm already nervous. Fantastic!_ she thought sarcastically. If she couldn't hold herself together, she'd be a nervous, embarrassed mess the entire month! She needed to calm down and just follow their example. Why she felt such a strong need to do this now when she didn't at France's house or anyone else's, she had no idea. Well… actually she did. But that was beside the point!

After sending her friends a message to let them know she'd gotten there in one piece, she put on her pajamas and crawled under the blanket, clutching it close to her chin. Aside from the occasional sound of passing footsteps, the house had gone quiet. Either everyone else was also heading to bed for the night or Finland had informed them to keep it down so she could rest.

All too soon her eyelids grew heavy. She didn't even try to fight the feeling- rather she welcomed the peace that sleep would bring her now. If she was going to be here for a month while biding her time until the spell was completed, she would need to keep her wits about her as best she could.

She silenced her thoughts and let the night sink in.


	12. Chapter 12- Adjusting

Corytha woke up slowly the next morning. She'd gone a few days without having another nightmare, so she was thankful for yet another break her first day in the Nordic household. Things were quiet outside her window. It seemed to be a cloudy day, though it was bright enough to lighten up the room.

As she sat up and stretched, the first thing she noticed was how oddly calm she felt. Normally she would have awoken with a vague sinking feeling in her stomach, but not today. Her blue eyes scanned her surroundings carefully. Everything just seemed so… peaceful. Either she'd had a really good night of sleep, or she was dreaming. One pinch told her what the answer to that theory was.

 _It feels so strange,_ she thought as she tugged on her dark blue jeans and loose blue top. _Maybe since I finally know where Arthur is at with the spell, the anxiety has gone away for a little bit._

Whatever the reason, she wasn't going to waste her time wondering why. She was going to try and enjoy it as much as she could. The girl was somewhat nervous- Finland was welcoming enough, but other than Denmark she hadn't heard much from the others at all. They all had such different personalities, she wondered how she was going to handle it, especially if they were all in the same room. She didn't want to become an annoyance to any of them.

 _I'm starting to think they insisted I come here on purpose,_ she thought in amusement, thinking back to her friends at the meeting. That was when she suddenly paused and stared up at the wall, her eyes widening. It was in that moment she remembered: they knew she liked the Nordics. They knew she'd had crushes on several of them in the past, and that for a time they were all she seemed to talk about when she'd had her Hetalia phase. She had been particularly happy to talk about how cute Finland could be in the show. She found her face turning red.

 _Crap, they did do this on purpose!_ She mentally smacked herself upside the head for not realizing this sooner. _I swear the next time I see them…_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a light knocking on her door. She straightened herself out quickly and turned towards the sound.

"C-Come in?" she stuttered.

To her relief it was Finland who popped his head in through the door when it opened. His face seemed to light up when he saw her dressed for the day.

"Goodmorning~!" he said cheerfully. "You sure look nice today!"

A faint blush dusted her face, but she managed to smile back and found her voice.

"Thank you, goodmorning to you too," she replied softly.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Surprisingly, very well," she admitted with a light laugh.

"Good to hear! I don't know if you're ready for breakfast yet, but I'm making a little something if you'd like some."

She tilted her head a bit and was about to reply when her stomach answered him for her, causing her to sigh and look down in defeat. He laughed and led her downstairs to the kitchen.

* * *

The first thing she noticed was a lack of Denmark's enthusiasm as she'd thought would be one of the first things she'd hear in the morning. When they reached the living room, Norway was the only other person there, flipping through channels with a coffee mug in his other hand. He glanced over calmly to them for only a moment before going back to what he was doing.

"Morning," he said simply.

"Goodmorning, Lukas!" Finland greeted on his way into the kitchen. Corytha quietly made her way past him as well, murmuring her own hello before disappearing like a breeze. He glanced over to where she'd been only moments before and stared on in thought. She would be slightly jumpy around a few of them for a while, so it seemed.

Now back with Finland, he told her to take a seat at the table while he put the finishing touches on whatever it was he had made. Within minutes she watched as he placed a bowl down before her, filled with something she'd never seen before, topped with berries and a small bit of butter. She blinked while he gave her a glass of milk to go with it. He took a seat across from her and gave her an expectant look.

"Well? Give it a try!" he prompted.

Curious as to what it was, she took a spoonful of it and savored the taste as long as she could, particularly happy with the added berries on top that had been evidently frozen. The sweetness of the fruit nearly blocked out any other taste, but she found herself enjoying it heartily within moments.

"It's really good," she couldn't help but smile. She wasn't necessarily picky with food in the first place, but still. "What is it?"

"It's puuro! Basically like a porridge, I guess you would call it. It's pretty common, but I'm glad you like it!"

"I tend to like a lot of things," she laughed. "For a while I didn't eat all that much, so now everything I taste is good."

"Well you'll be able to try plenty of new things over the next month," he laughed. "So it'll all taste good, then!"

"So where is everyone?" she asked.

"Oh, Iceland is probably outside. I think Sweden ran up to the store to get a few things, and Denmark is probably just sleeping in today," Finland explained.

"What am I doing?"

Corytha jumped a bit in her spot and looked over towards the loud voice, sitting in shock for a moment as she took in Denmark in black and red pajamas. He grinned at her, wiping a bit of the sleepiness from his bright eyes.

"Goodmornin'!"

"Morning," she sighed a bit in relief, her pulse steadying within moments. His sudden appearances would probably cause her to have the same reactions as Prussia had caused, though this time it would be unintentional on his part.

When they finished with their breakfast, she offered to help clean up but ended up being pulled back into the living room with Denmark, who told her to sit down on the couch. He made sure she was sitting before fleeing upstairs to do something, leaving her alone with Norway as he continued watching the news, which was surprisingly uneventful.

She had been on the verge of discomfort from prolonged silence when the Dane finally returned, plopping down in the chair next to the couch with different clothes on. His gravity-defying hair was even more fluffy in person, but she forced herself not to focus on it for too long, instead curious as to why he was now opening up some sort of a note on his phone.

"I know Germany said you shouldn't do much moving around," he spoke up, "but we could space things out a bit and at least hit a few things you might like! It would be dull if you didn't get to see anything the entire time!"

He began to type away at the screen, evidently wanting to create a list of places she might want to go. Right as he was doing this, Sweden came in through the front door with several bags while Iceland helped take a few things to the kitchen. The girl assumed Finland was probably still in there and would be assisting them.

"Do you have any ideas or do you want suggestions?" he asked. Then he quickly added to his question. "Or maybe you should just tell us what kind of stuff you're interested in… or you could do a bit of searching on your own, if you want to!"

She stared blankly at him for a moment, not sure where to even begin.

"Don't talk so fast, you'll confuse her," Norway said from the other end of the couch.

"Whoops!" Denmark leaned back and gave her another signature grin. "My bad."

She couldn't help but laugh at his behavior a bit.

"It's fine… I don't really know if I have any ideas though," she admitted slowly.

"Well we can help you brainstorm! Right, Norge?"

"What's going on?" Finland asked, walking into the room with Iceland following silently behind.

"I want to start planning places to take her to!" Denmark announced. Finland smiled and clapped his hands together, looking quite on board with the idea.

"Okay! Any ideas so far?"

"Not yet, we were just about to start thinking."  
""Don't hurt yourself," Norway said. He was closest to Corytha, so she was the only one who ended up hearing his comment. She began to smile at the joke, and was trying hard to hide it, but failing miserably. All she caught a glimpse of before turning her face away to hide the fact was a small smirk appearing on the man's face.

"Well, we could probably start with her interest in history! You seemed to be interested in seeing a viking museum, didn't you?" Finland asked as he sat down nearby to help get things started. He was just as eager to show her around as Denmark was- he had a feeling that she could really end up enjoying herself here. From texting he could tell she was a curious person, and she seemed to like scenery, which there would be plenty of. If she'd never left the United States, what she could see he hoped would leave an impact on her in a good way.

"Y-Yeah," she admitted, holding her arms a bit. She didn't want to accidentally bring something up and be wrong through ignorance, hence why she was mostly letting them do the brainstorming. She could confirm or deny as asked.

* * *

For a short while, Finland and Denmark worked on the compiled list of places they could go show her before her time was up. They settled on making just a few stops, around six to seven, so that a good portion of her time could still be spent relaxing here and not going too far away. Denmark was initially disappointed to cross off so many places they'd come up with, even though he understood for the most part why it had to be done.

Corytha, however, was very grateful. After being shown the list, she felt herself develop a bit of hope and excitement about the places they planned on taking her. There was more to do than she'd originally thought of- it was only thanks to Finland's thinking that they'd come up with hiking and a museum, while Norway had thrown in the idea for a fjord cruise. Seal spotting was also mentioned, to which the girl instantly agreed to. Iceland mostly stayed out of it aside from a moment or two where he had insight on something that was mentioned, but Sweden had never entered the room until after they were done. Where he had gone off to during that time, Corytha had no idea.

With the brainstorming done and Denmark feeling satisfied that they could start picking the days over the next month for the little adventures out of the house, a good deal of time the rest of that morning and into the afternoon was spent trying to find programs on the television, but it was of little use for the most part. Soon Denmark was bored again, and the more he tried to talk, the more he became frustrated that no one seemed as eager to move as he was. Eventually he popped up from his spot on the couch.

"I know!" he beamed. "Cor hasn't even been outside yet! C'mon!"

He took her by the arm, much to her surprise and slight dismay, and quickly pulled her by his side out the door.

Once outside, she squinted a bit while a fresh blast of cool air hit her in the face. She rubbed at her eyes in an attempt to focus them.

"That was a bit sudden," she murmured to Denmark, glancing up at him. Though she wanted to convey to him that the random grabbing would not be appreciated, his expression was just too happy- contagious yet again. So instead she sighed and began to smile a bit.

"Take a look!" he instructed.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention away from him to take in the area that she'd missed the night before. What she discovered was oddly pleasant and different from the views she'd had before.

The house seemed to be a large property, with a well kept but simple front lawn and longer driveway, though it was smaller than those of the other houses she'd stayed in. Beyond the edges of the front section the land dipped down into a valley, revealing a city sprawled just beyond. In the distance the mountainous terrain loomed like a ghostly figure. It was an oddly refreshing view.

"Cool," she said to herself absentmindedly.

"Oh, that's not the best part!"

She glanced at Denmark and cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh?"

"He's right," Finland smiled. "The real view is on the other side. Want to see?"

"Sure," she smiled.

Corytha followed them around the back of the house. Though there was mostly forest obstructing her vision, there was a walking path that led downhill through the trees, so she followed them all the way to the bottom. At one point something caught her eye up ahead- something moving slowly, reflecting light and beginning to stretch out in a patch of blue.

Water.

She picked up the pace a bit now, struggling to keep up with Denmark's long strides, but she was determined to see whatever lay hidden beyond the last line of trees. When she got there her breath was nearly stolen away.

It was a decently sized lake, clear under the sky and such a vivid blue that she could swear it was fake, but she knew it wasn't. Smaller mountains stretched around the lake like a crater, which the path stretched off on either side, likely wrapping around it completely. There were small fields of grass in some places and a bench nearby, along with a small dock and wooden boat to her left.

Her expression was momentarily stuck in one of pure shock and awe, and Denmark couldn't help but start to laugh.

"I guess you like it then! Right?"

"Like it?" she replied. "I-It's amazing…"

"If you like that, then you'll really like a few of the places we'll go to!" Finland said. "This place is pretty neat, but it's not nearly as breathtaking as you can get."

Corytha laughed a bit. "To me it's already breathtaking…"

"Have you not seen a lot of mountains before?"

She shrugged and leaned on the trunk of a tree for a moment, breathing the air in as much as she could. It felt wonderful to be standing here right now, surrounded by nothing but solace and nature.

"I saw the Rocky Mountains in America, back when my family lived out in Colorado," she replied, her anxious voice fading away for the time being. "But it's been so long… I haven't seen anything like this in ten years…"

"Did your family move away?" Finland asked. When she didn't respond quickly as he assumed she would, he looked over and saw something like sadness in her eyes. It lasted only a moment or so before she seemed to force the feeling away and finally thought of a response.

"I guess you could say that," she replied quietly.

Though for a moment Finland was tempted to ask what she'd meant by that, Denmark suddenly intervened and patted her on the back of the shoulder.

"Well you can come down here whenever you want! You can even take the boat out if you want to!" he grinned. "And if you ask Emil, I'm sure you could walk in the morning with him!"

A lightbulb went off in her head from Finland's earlier words, stating that Iceland would have been outside in the morning. She guessed perhaps he came down here and walked around the lake. Not a shabby way to get up in the morning.

"Maybe I'll ask sometime," she laughed lightly, recovering from her sorrow moments before.

"Do you want to go back or take a walk?" Finland asked.

"I'd like to walk a bit, if you don't mind," Corytha replied with a soft smile.

"Okay, no problem!"

They spent the next half hour making their way around the lake, stopping every now and again when Corytha noticed birds she'd never seen before, or just to take in the view. She just couldn't get over the sight and the air- so fresh to breathe, and the location was practically a sight for sore eyes. She was well aware that this wasn't nearly as magnificent as the views could get in the Nordic countries, but even this was- quite frankly- gorgeous to her. As was just about any amount of nature. She was probably the biggest tree-hugger out of her friend group.

As she was walking a little ways ahead of the others to get a taste of silence around her, she brushed past bushes and ran her hand along a tree every now and again, closing her eyes with a small smile on her face. How long had it been since she felt this way? As though she'd come someplace… safe. Somewhere she felt like she belonged, somehow.

Behind her, Denmark strolled beside Finland, beaming from ear to ear as he watched her.

"She seems like she's having fun, doesn't she?"

Finland was smiling too.

"I think she gets happy in natural places like this," he explained, remembering a conversation they'd had over text.

"Well there's plenty more of that to go around!" Denmark laughed. "Maybe she won't want to leave by the time she's done here!"

Finland laughed too, although he hesitated a bit afterwards and his look became one of sympathy.

"I hope Arthur can find out a bit more… it must have been a letdown for them to realize there was a 65% chance of failure for that spell," he said, well aware of the girls' present situation. They were perhaps the only other ones who knew, thanks to some investigating by Norway.

"Yeah, well, whatever happens, the least we can do is try to keep her mind off of it," Denmark reasoned, still as happy as ever. He was too excited to show her around to let something like that ruin it. "It'll be fine!"

 _I hope you're right,_ thought Finland. Even though Corytha was still new to him, he knew her well enough by now to feel concerned for her position. That spell had her entire life riding on it for better or for worse. He knew she must have been feeling the pressure, though she seemed alright for now.

"Hey Finland, what's this one?" the girl called in a soft voice, pointing up towards the branch of a tree back near the beginning of the trail. He couldn't help but smile.

"What did you find?" he called back as he walked towards her.

* * *

The most stressful part of Corytha's day- or perhaps one of the most stressful parts of the entire stay in the Hetalia universe so far- came around dinner. After they'd returned from their walk, everyone was off keeping themselves busy, so she'd returned to her room until Finland told her Sweden would be making dinner. Though she'd offered to help if it was needed, in the end she was left to her own devices in her bedroom.

She sat down to text her friends. After shooting them a picture of the lake that she'd taken before they left, she suddenly became all too aware of the fact she would be having dinner with the Nordics. Potentially all five of them. Alone. Without her friends.

There was a sinking feeling in her chest at this realization, and it had nothing to do with the Nordics themselves- she was grateful to them, more than anything. But she wasn't too sure how well she would manage at the dinner table with all of them there. It had been one thing to have her friends around in the beginning, or to have three goofballs like the BTT around her who could lighten the mood on their own without much help from her, but this would be a whole different story. Now there would be five guys, each of them with different personalities, and a couple of whom would probably not talk much. She worried if Denmark would continue to be talkative with her at the table, or Finland. How would her manners be? Did she really even have any?

 _I think it's… u-um… elbows off the table, definitely don't stuff things into your mouth… ah… oh dear god,_ she thought, groaning a bit in dismay.

"Hey Cori!"

She nearly yelped in surprise and launched off the bed, doing a sort of a twirl to face whoever had spoken. Finland looked at her in shock from the doorway.

"I-I'm sorry, did I startle you?" he asked.

Corytha heaved a sigh and held a hand to her chest.

"I-It's fine, I didn't notice you were there," she laughed slightly, trying to calm her racing heart. "Oh, geez…"

He smiled sheepishly and stepped inside. "Apologies, but dinner is going to be ready in a few minutes, if you want to come down!"

"O-Oh, right," she replied in a small voice. "Yeah, I'll be down-"

"Great! I think you're gonna like it!" he cheered a bit and turned towards the door to head back downstairs, but when Corytha didn't move to follow he paused and looked back at her. She seemed mildly concerned with something.

"Corytha?"

The blonde didn't reply right away, unsure as to whether she should ask anything at all. She wanted to, to make sure she didn't offend anyone by accident, and yet she felt like it would be dumb of her to ask… as though it was common knowledge. Not that she'd had anyone to show her anyway, but somehow, she still managed to worry about it. She almost wished she could retreat back into her room to eat, but she knew that would definitely be a wrong move.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Her gaze flicked up and met with his, and for a moment she almost reeled back, but she held her footing. He'd come back over to her while she was lost in thought.

"S-Sorry, Tino, I was just thinking," she admitted shakily, glancing away with guilt in her eyes.

"About what?"

 _Would it be dumb to ask?_ She wondered. _Either way…_

"J-Just…" she rubbed at her arm, unsure of herself more than she had ever been before. "I um… I was wondering if… you could give me a rundown or something…"

"A rundown? Of what?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowing with confusion.

"Of… um… table etiquette," she murmured.

There was a brief moment of silence before Finland started to laugh, taking her by surprise. She looked up and found him nearly tearing up, his eyes alight with some kind of joy, though she didn't understand why.

"I-Is that what you were thinking about this whole time?" he asked, calming down enough to talk.

"W-Well… y-yeah," she said quietly, clutching at her elbows at this point.

"Don't you worry yourself over something like that, it's fine! Come on, let's go get you some food," he said cheerfully, draping a friendly arm across her shoulders and propelling her from the room faster than she could object. He'd startled rambling about what they were having. While it sounded delicious, she couldn't help but feel frustrated and slightly afraid the closer they got to the kitchen, as she was unable to clarify anything by the time they'd reached it.

"B-But Tino, I still don't know wha-"

"There she is!"

Corytha looked over to the table. Denmark was at one end of the table, while Sweden was at the other end. On one side, Norway and Iceland sat by each other, leaving Corytha on the other side with Finland. She smiled at the Dane but was quite rooted to the spot as the others looked over, and only when Finland nudged her as he passed did she follow him over to sit down in between him and Denmark. At least she was sitting by the people she knew better.

When they started eating, she mostly waited to figure out what to do, often times long enough for Finland to notice. He came to her rescue more than enough times, helping her to have her fair share of food and handling things in an obvious fashion so that she could see how it was done. At first she had no idea what he was doing until she caught his eye during one of his 'demonstrations,' and he'd winked at her then continued as if nothing had happened. That, more than anything, had caused her to smile. Before, she thought he didn't think much of her worries, and yet here he was, trying to make things as easy as possible without making everyone else aware of her anxiety. He was a miracle worker.

Then again, he was basically santa in the anime. It made sense.

Most of the talking was done by Denmark, followed by Finland and Iceland, to her surprise. Sweden and Norway remained mostly quiet, though every now and again Norway would reply to something. It was mostly entertaining, and she knew that if Sam were here she'd probably be bawling by now. At one point she thought Norway would begin to choke Denmark with his shirt collar like in the show, but he refrained, possibly trying to keep things from escalating too much her first night here. Despite this, the conversations could grow quite lively, and the 'big brother' conversation even popped up at some point. She stayed out of most of it.

Her and Sweden were tied so far on the silence scale. Both of them hadn't said much, for her a few words and for him, curt responses or the occasional grunt. Denmark tried to get her in on a few of their conversations, but she didn't want to cause trouble, so she made things short and sweet when she could. The rest of her time was spent either smiling at something someone had said or trying desperately to ignore the occasional stares she was receiving from Sweden.

Mostly the latter.

She knew he probably didn't mean to make things uncomfortable for her- in fact she was aware that he probably didn't even know what he was doing right now. Whether he was trying to see if she was enjoying the food or what, she wasn't sure, but his gaze gave her a feeling of being glued to the spot. It took everything in her not to look back at him- she worried what may happen if he realized she knew he was watching. He was good at heart, she knew that much. It eased her fears a little bit at least, even though her nerves were still very high.

The topic of conversation changed to family somehow, probably after the whole 'big brother' conversation had come and gone, and Corytha put up a guard as Denmark turned his attention to her with his usual liveliness.

"Hey Cor, you said that you and your friends were all sharing a house before you came here, right?"

"Y-Yeah," she replied after finishing her last bite. Don't speak with your mouth full- one of the few things she did remember.

"So has anyone called you guys while you've been away?" he asked, appearing to be honestly curious. "I mean they've gotta know you're gone sometime, right?"

Her expression fell a bit, but she had to keep up a mask. She couldn't give them any signs as to the truth of her situation, at least.

"Ah, well, Reagan called her grandma the first day we were here," she explained, looking at him in hopes it would help sell her story. "She's covering for us while we're gone. And Sam's mom probably doesn't keep in contact with her, they have sort of a… shaky relationship."

"What about your parents?" Finland asked, growing curious himself. He still felt like there were so many gaps in what he knew about her so far.

"U-Um…" to her dismay, her speech faltered. She didn't know how to respond to that. She didn't want to lie, but she couldn't tell them the truth, either. It was too painful for her to say the truth anyway… it would stir up so many bad memories. So much had gone so wrong…

"They're on a cruise with Reagan's grandparents," she suddenly said. She was surprised at her own lie. She wasn't used to it… not like this. That was a complete lie… if she ever withheld information, she at least gave half the truth.

Her parents were gone.

"Ooh, that sounds nice!" Denmark replied.

There was a brief silence. Corytha had nothing else to say on the subject, and it seemed no one knew where to go from there. Not even Finland knew what to ask afterwards, even though the girl could sense he wasn't satisfied with whatever she'd said. He paid attention to detail… he would work things out eventually, and she feared what would happen if he asked directly about her parents again.

Little did she know, Norway had been watching carefully when she spoke. Her eyes had gone directly to the right, and the hesitation in her words… he knew she was lying. Pretty badly, too. But he wouldn't point it out- he felt she had a reason for doing this. She didn't seem the type to want to deceive others.

"...The food was on point tonight," he said at random, getting up to clear his space.

While the others hopped onto the new conversation starter, Corytha looked at Norway in surprise, not having expected him to speak up. She felt as though she had been saved by the bell, technically speaking. At least the silence was broken and everything would hopefully be forgotten. But when she looked at him, she was stunned to find him looking straight back. Around her everyone else's voices became faint, almost nonexistent. He knew. He knew she had lied. She could see the truth of it in his gaze. It was then that an icy chill seemed to strike her to the core…

No sooner had the moment of time occurred did it vanish in the blink of an eye, and the Norwegian went about his task. Everyone else began to do the same, until eventually she was the only one sitting at the table, a distinct feeling of unease settling in her gut.

 _What if he tells the others I lied?_ She thought in panic. _He knows… he was right across from me, he must have just… somehow…_

"Everything okay?"

The deep voice startled her from her thoughts. Her head shot to the side, only to find Sweden standing behind her shoulder. They were the only two left in the kitchen. How long had she been sitting here?

"O-Oh goodness," she breathed, getting quickly to her feet and straightening her clothes out. She could feel her pulse picking up… this wasn't good. "T-The food was amazing, Sweden. Thank you so much!"

She tried to give him a sincere smile, but she knew she couldn't disguise the anxiety writhing in her eyes. She wasn't all that great at hiding emotion most of the time. All too often her real feelings just sort of shined through.

"...You're welcome," he said simply.

Unable to handle being around anyone much longer, she hesitated before asking him if he needed any help cleaning up, but he shook his head. So she took her leave.

As soon as she'd reached the living room, Denmark asked her if she wanted to watch a movie or something, but she politely turned him down and hurried towards the stairs, insisting she should clean up instead.


	13. Chapter 13- Making Friends

Corytha had rushed upstairs quickly, unable to bear being around any of them until she'd managed to calm herself down. While grabbing her clothes and preparing to take a shower while they were all occupied downstairs, she couldn't help but feel like she'd messed up.

The teen wasn't even sure why she felt so spastic right now… it had only escalated during dinner. Things were fine until Denmark had brought up family, and then she'd been forced to lie. Now Norway knew she'd lied, and Finland seemed curious, and even Sweden had probably noticed something was up with her after dinner when she was the only one left at the table. Of all people to be around, she was with the ones who paid attention to detail. Well, maybe aside from Denmark. But that was beside the point.

 _I should have kept my mouth shut,_ she scolded herself, stepping into the bathroom and turning the water on cold. She needed to cool off. _Why did I have to go and mess things up? So much for good impressions on the first day. Geez, I nearly lost it down there! What's wrong with me?_

* * *

With Corytha keeping busy upstairs, the Nordics were debating on movies to watch, now that the day was drawing to a close. Denmark kept pulling out random things that no one really wanted to watch, but they let him put one in anyway. Despite this the Dane couldn't help but want to talk about their new house guest, even when it started to play.

"So what do ya guys think?" he prompted, looking at the rest of them with eager eyes. "Think it'll be fun having her around?"

"She's really quiet," Iceland replied, staring blankly at the television.

"Well this is her first day after all," Finland countered with a smile. "I think she'll come around, she just needs to get used to it is all."

"She hasn't been on her own with this many of us before," Norway noted.

"I think it'll be great," Denmark went on. "She was really happy down at the lake today- that's hardly anything compared to what we'll be taking her to see. Though, I do wish she'd speak up more, she's almost as quiet as you, Berwald!"

"...She's nice," Sweden said. "Offered to help me clean up."

"Oh, she's definitely sweet," Finland beamed. Then his smile faltered a bit. "But I do think we should avoid asking her about things back home…"

"Eh? Why?" asked Denmark.

"Well," he began to reply, "I think it makes her a bit sad to think about it right now... she knows there's a good chance of failure with that spell… she must miss her family and all."

"Ah… didn't really think about that before, but you might have a point."

"She seems a bit skittish too," Iceland thought out loud. "It's like she's nervous about us or something…"

Finland rubbed the back of his head and laughed a bit, causing the rest of them to focus on him.

"What's up, Tino?"

"When she was getting her stuff put away last night, she was actually shaking," Finland admitted. "She told me she was scared to mess up."

"Mess up?" Iceland furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "How?"

"I don't even know, any possible way, I guess!" he chuckled. "Right before dinner today she was even asking about table etiquette! I think she just wants to make a good impression."

"Aw, she doesn't have to try so hard," Denmark laughed a bit himself now. "She's fine just being herself!" Suddenly he straightened up and grinned towards the television, a plan forming in the back of his mind. "We should just treat her like one of us while she's here! She'll have to feel better, eventually!"

"We could try," Finland agreed thoughtfully. "She could probably use a few friends right now!"

"It's settled then!" Denmark decided quickly. He didn't need to think on it long to determine that Corytha needed a pick-me-up while she stayed here, especially if she really felt like trying so hard to have them accept her. He would show her she had more friends than she knew.

* * *

That night while she was organizing the things in her temporary room and mulling over what she'd done throughout the day, she wondered if they thought her strange after the things she'd done. That was one of her many talents- over analyzing everything she'd said or done in a day. Trying to determine if she'd done anything wrong. She knew she had some things to make up for from today alone.

With her mind wrapped up in her behavior around dinner, she didn't hear as her door opened and someone came inside. She only realized she wasn't alone when another figure appeared in her peripheral vision. When she looked over, Denmark was grinning almost wickedly at her, and she had to tighten her muscles to avoid visibly flinching.

"H-Hello?" she murmured by way of greeting.

"Whatcha up to in here?" he asked, glancing at her piles of clothes on the bed.

"O-Oh," she said, following his gaze, "I was just organizing my clothes again… I clean when I'm thinking."

She laughed slightly but held one of her arms as she usually did when she was unsure of herself, but the Dane only continued to smile.

"Okay! Well I was coming to ask if you'd want to learn about any of my viking stuff tomorrow," he offered. "I've got some things in my storage closet that I haven't even looked at in a long time! It would be a win-win!"

"Th-That would be cool, if you don't mind," Corytha answered with a shy smile.

"Ahaha, yes!" he cheered mostly to himself. She couldn't help but admire his enthusiasm, even though she lacked it herself. "Then it's settled!"  
"Guess so…"

For a moment she thought he was going to leave, but he piped up again with a different topic this time.

"So how did you like your first day?"

Of course.

"It was nice," she said honestly. "You've got a really neat place, here…"

"Ah, it's nothing much," Denmark laughed. "But if you enjoyed yourself, I'm glad!"

"Yeah…." Corytha glanced away nervously and sighed a bit. "S-Sorry if I seem a bit… strange, or anything… I-I'm not really-"

"Eh? I didn't notice anything strange," Denmark interrupted before she could try to explain herself. She took it as him just being his usual self, but on the inside, he just didn't want her to worry herself over it. "It's your first day here anyway. It's not like we expect you to be the picture of perfection or anything!"

This got her to pause and look at him finally, and she couldn't help but feel genuinely calmed at the kindness in his eyes. Had she really not been as strange as she thought?

"O-Oh… w-well if that's true, then I'm glad," she smiled softly.

"I guess you'll be going to sleep soon?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest. She couldn't help but suddenly feel a bit smaller standing in front of him. If she remembered correctly, he was one of the tallest characters in the show overall, with Sweden being the tallest. Her face was basically eye-level with his chest.

"Yeah, probably," she replied, resisting the urge to step back. "I'm kind of tired, for some reason…"

He laughed heartily, jarring her for a moment. She kept forgetting how loud he could be.

"I can't blame ya! You'll get used to it though," he said. "Go on and get to bed then. The sooner you go to sleep the sooner I can show ya my awesome stuff!"

She laughed a bit at his words and couldn't help but blush a bit, seeing the cheer written across his entire face. Even his eyes seemed to sparkle in their own way, and it wasn't just the anime speaking. His personality was just too joyous for her not to smile, and he only seemed to smile even more as she did, so finally she started to break..

"W-What are you doing?" she laughed, averting her gaze from his somehow ever-widening grin.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" he replied. But she saw the mischief in his eyes and laughed a bit more, trying desperately to stop herself. She couldn't.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?"

Finally he started laughing too and put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a small wink.

"I just haven't seen you smile much," he explained. "You have a nice one, you should use it and relax a bit more, Cor!"

Gradually her laughter slowed down and she held a hand to her chest, shaking her head a bit at his antics. He had a point. Any smiles she'd given thus far were usually shy ones, or ones she forced herself to use since otherwise she would be deep in thought. The one just now alongside the laughter had been purely genuine, and she wouldn't put it past Denmark to realize that.

"Thank you, I guess," she eventually replied.

"There'll be plenty more of that," he teased. "And anyway you're at least five times as cute when you're happy!"

His blunt words made her face turn the color of a tomato, so much so that even Romano would be proud.

"U-Uh-I-Um-" she stuttered quietly like a madwoman, arms hanging limp at her sides.

Apparently not noticing the girl's predicament, Denmark pulled her into a light but firm hug, only making her freeze up on the inside even more than she already had. If there was ever a time for her to freak out for no particular reason, this would be it.

"Well, see ya tomorrow, Cor!" he said, releasing her after a few moments and making his way out of the room before holding a hand up in farewell. He somehow managed to shut the door gracefully behind him, leaving the dazed teen standing there, her hair slightly messed up from where he'd ruffled it with a hand.

Holy crap. That had basically been her first hug here. Most of the time she had received handshakes or a pat on the shoulder, even a few times with an arm around her shoulders, but that was the closest she had gotten to anyone thus far. She was torn between slight fear, shock, and happiness. Mostly the last two, the first only due to her back being sensitive, as she was. But it didn't matter. She'd just been hugged by one of her favorite characters in a fictional show…. And he'd called her cute. Even if he didn't mean it in any significant way, the blonde fumbled for her phone quickly and rapidly pulled up the group chat she had with her friends.

* * *

Corytha: "REAGAN. SAM. HOLY HELL PLZ COME ON"

Corytha: "GUYS"

Corytha: "PLEASE THIS IS SERIOUS"

Sam: "What in the hell happened?! Are you okay?! Did anyone do anything to you?! D:"

Reagan: "Calm down there girly! Are you alright? D:"

Corytha: "Yes I'm fine! But I'm freaking out over here!"

Sam: "Gurl calm the hell down and just tell us what happened already!"

Corytha: "ksdbfspkhdfgy I don't know what to do with myself like I can't function normally. Literally. I am not okay."

Reagan: "Corytha, what happened?"

Corytha: "Denmark, that's what happened!"

Sam: "?!"

Reagan: "Oh?"

Corytha: "HE HUGGED ME. LIKE ALMOST A BEAR HUG, HUG."

Corytha: "AND THEN HE CALLED ME CUTE."

Sam: "..."

Reagan: "o.O"

Reagan: "Well that's great! :D So did today go well?"

Corytha: "I mean I guess I went okay but like what am I supposed to do with myself right now HE HUGGED ME AND I'M LIKE FREAKING OUT"

Reagan: "Maybe it's because you still have a crush on him?"

Corytha: "No I thought I was over that now D I mean I still like him and all the Nordics but like… BAH WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME"

Sam: "I AM LAUGHING SO HARD RIGHT NOW! XD"

Corytha: "SAM PLZ THIS IS SERIOUS!"

Sam: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA X'D XDXD"

Corytha: "SAM! D"

* * *

~Meanwhile at Germany's House~

In the middle of the movie the redhead was watching with Germany and Prussia, she had received all of the messages from Corytha and from Reagan. At first she had been furious, thinking something had happened to her, but upon realizing the poor girl was just freaking out because of getting hugged and being called cute, she had started trying to hold in her laughter.

Then Corytha had tried to insist something was wrong with her and that she didn't understand what was going on, despite the fact she quite obviously had a thing for the Nordics. Which one she had a true crush on she wasn't sure, but she knew that the girl was basically infatuated with the whole group anyway.

Needless to say, she busted out into laughter during the movie, startling her company but not really giving a damn. The more Corytha texted, the more she laughed, until tears were literally streaking down her face. She was on the floor at one point, trying to picture the blonde's blushing mad face in the Dane's arms.

"Pfft BAHAHA-"

* * *

The blonde pouted and texted a final goodnight to her friends, stuffing the device into a drawer and shutting it with slightly more force than necessary. Leave it to them to make a frustrating situation even worse. Sam barely even said a word, probably just laughing about things from a distance.

 _Why is this so funny?!_ She wondered, huffing as she got under the covers of her bed. _I mean yeah it's kind of great, but it's mostly weird! What even happened just now?!_

Eventually she sighed and closed her eyes. She allowed her head to drop onto the pillow.

 _No point staying up though… I might as well get to sleep. At least day one is over._

Though she tried to convince herself the hug had just been some strange, spur-of-the-moment thing, she couldn't help but remember the feeling she'd had being stuck there, even if it was barely for a minute. It had made her feel a mixture of things that she hadn't in a while, for some reason… how he'd made her feel that way, she wasn't sure, but it made her smile a bit as she was nodding off to sleep.

She'd felt safe.

* * *

After the little episode with Denmark on the first night she was there, the following days became progressively easier for Corytha. Though primarily she still talked to Denmark and Finland, the others seemed to not mind hanging around, and every now and then Sweden would talk to her too. He'd even let her help clean up the other day- she offered after every meal, just for good measure. She wanted to at least be able to help if she was going to stay here for so long.

The plan for now was to let about a week go by, and then afterwards they would go out every few days to do something else. There would be plenty of time to do everything on the list. Denmark made sure of that.

Dinner got easier for her to bear, and their conversations seemed much more like they would be in the anime. She had started to laugh more, though she still only spoke when spoken to herself. She still copied Finland's movements at the table, but otherwise she felt a lot less intimidated to try and do everything correctly- no one paid near enough attention to do that. She even started to stay around them a bit longer by nightfall, and though Iceland often retired to his room before anyone else, the rest of them carried on as usual.

The girl still felt a bit strange around Norway. Sweden seemed to be fine with her, perhaps helped in part by the fact Tino liked her a lot as a friend, but Norway was as silent and unreadable as ever. She often couldn't tell what he thought of her- it was nearly hell, especially after what had happened at dinner the first time, when he'd figured out rather quickly that she was lying about her parents. The mysterious Norwegian never brought it up. In fact it was almost as if the exchange hadn't happened, when she'd seen the knowledge in his eyes. He said hello and good morning to her when the time called for it. When he spoke more, it was usually in response to something one of the others had said, but for the most part he seemed much the same to her. She wished she could know what he was thinking. She wasn't even sure why she cared so much.

Despite the minor setback, her anxiety had become easier to handle. She was able to walk around their house without feeling uneasy because of being an outsider, and they were no longer intimidating for her to be around. She'd come to get used to them pretty fast- them and their array of interesting personalities. She could walk downstairs and start drawing in her sketchbook on the couch and not feel like she was intruding on anything, or being a bother in general.

All of these developments were primarily thanks to Denmark. After that first night, starting first thing the next morning he went to great lengths to ensure she was with someone at all times, and that she was never left out of a conversation that day. He had purposely tried to keep her involved and had gotten her to laugh on more than one occasion, which somehow gradually seemed to ease any remaining tension she felt. He basically was trying to incorporate her into their daily life. He wanted things to be normal and not strained. She appreciated it.

On the morning of her seventh day, she finally worked up the courage to get up a bit earlier and catch Iceland before he walked out the door. She usually got up too late and missed him, so she hadn't had the chance to ask ever since Denmark had suggested it. She figured it would be a good way to start the day and get a little bit of exercise in the morning, even if it was just a leisurely stroll.

She half expected him to say no, seeing as he was about as acquainted with her as Norway was, but to her surprise he agreed to it. He was a bit awkward about it, though she supposed she could figure out why, even if it meant it was just in his character to do so.

That's where she found herself now, walking with Iceland in silence around the lake. She strolled ahead of him a little ways, not wanting him to feel like she was there to hinder his routine by any means. She just liked getting a breath of fresh air and seeing nature in the morning. It reminded her of the walks her and her mother would take, alongside Paul on the days he was feeling strong. Those were good memories of summers lost long ago.

The sudden thought was enough for her to stop for a moment, staring absentmindedly out at the lake while clutching the locket at her neck. A deep sorrow seemed to pierce at her heart like an arrow. She could actually feel a distinct painful emptiness in her chest, as though her heart had been removed, though she knew it was still in there.

 _Why… all of the sudden…_ she wondered as sadness spread slowly within her. _I've been feeling fine, and then just now…_

She almost wished she hadn't gone on this walk after all. It had sparked a memory that left her feeling lonely, even though she was surrounded by supportive friends like Reagan and Sam these days. The therapist had told her that she wouldn't heal so quickly from the experiences she'd had or the emotional abuse she'd suffered… but in the midst of her situation she wished it would have waited until she got home.

"Corytha?"

Her head whipped around to find Iceland several yards ahead of her, giving her a confused look. They were almost back at the path that led back to the house. She'd been in the lead the entire time, having stopped only just now in her moment of isolation.

"C-Coming, sorry!" she replied as she walked towards him. She kept her gaze averted almost guiltily.

 _What's up with her?_ He wondered before shaking his head and leading the way back to the house.

* * *

When they returned, her troubles were soon pushed aside by Denmark, who had prepared a plan for their day tomorrow. They would be going to a viking museum first as an easy way to start taking her around, and afterwards they could grab something to eat and then take a walk through town for a short while, ending with a walk along the docks. She was surprised that he had a plan of any kind- she'd suspected him to be the more spontaneous type instead.

"So what do ya think?"

"I look forward to it," Corytha smiled at him. Really, she was excited. It would be the first day out since she'd come here, and though she enjoyed just hanging around, the rest of them seemed eager to get out for a little bit soon.

"Great! It'll be fun!" he grinned, patting her on the back before looking back at the television. It wasn't on, but she figured he was just trying to occupy himself with looking at something. The man was constantly on the go, or at least he wanted to be- it was hard to get him to sit still for longer than thirty minutes, unless watching a movie or something else.

Moments later, Finland came into the room with his laptop and sat down next to her, giving her a friendly smile.

"Hey, Cori! How was your walk?" he asked.

"It was really nice," she answered. "I think I'll do it every morning, if I can."

"Well you're definitely welcome to!" he smiled. "Anyway, I had something I wanted to ask you."

"Oh?"

Sweden came in with a cup of coffee and sat down in an adjacent chair, fixing both of them with a semi-curious stare.

"Do you know Estonia?"

"Yeah, a little bit," she replied slowly. "Just some small stuff, thanks to the show."

"So then I'm guessing you know he designs websites, right?"

"Yep!"

"Okay, well he's been asking me lately if I know anyone who can design logos, and I remember you mentioning you did commissions with art, so… I wanted to ask if maybe you'd feel like designing a logo for him?" he gave her a hopeful look. "If you don't want to, that's fine. I just thought I'd ask you first."

She gave him a slightly surprised look. The entire time she'd been here, she hadn't expected anyone to request anything from her, or her friends for that matter. As far as she was concerned they were practically invisible to the world- literally.

"Oh! Um… sure, I can design something for him, if he wants me to. I'll need to know a bit more about this website he's making though," she said.

"Cool! I'll let him know!" Finland beamed, beginning to type almost instantly, probably to email Estonia.

Within minutes there was already a response from Estonia, and Finland ended up giving him her number so they could discuss things directly. It didn't take long for her to get a series of text messages giving her details about the website and some ideas that he had for a logo, so she sighed and tried to read through them as quickly as possible. Finland laughed a bit after a few minutes, realizing what she was trying to do.

"You don't have to get back to him right away, he usually sends a lot in one go," he laughed.

"I don't like not replying to things," Corytha absentmindedly replied, scrolling through his most recent message. "I feel like I'll forget later… and besides, I'm here, I might as well respond."

Finland merely shrugged but let her be as she replied to Estonia's messages and effectively ended the conversation for now, until she had a rough draft done by next week. She would work on it in the evenings when they weren't doing anything.

Once that was finished, she got a text from Sam about a facetime group chat and looked at Finland hopefully.

"Would you mind if I took a call from my friends for a little bit?" she asked. "Everyone's free for once."

"Of course! Go ahead!" Finland smiled. She thanked him and beamed, replying to Sam as she hurried her way upstairs and to her bedroom to take the call without disturbing anyone else. As soon as she sat down on her bed, she got the call and answered it, revealing the faces of both her friends in their respective locations.

"Hey guys!"

"I think your plan is working, Mathias!" Finland said. "I haven't even heard her stutter in days!"

"What did I tell ya? I knew she'd come around," Denmark beamed triumphantly. "Just takes a bit of coaxing!"

"She does seem calmer now," Iceland noted.

After the girl had left, gradually everyone except for Norway had settled in the living room for a while. No one knew where the latter had gone, not that it was anything new, so they didn't think much of it.

"How was she on the walk this morning?"

"Fine… she did stop towards the end, though," he recalled, glancing towards the ceiling.

"She stopped?"  
"Yeah… she was ahead of me most of the time, but then at the end she suddenly stopped moving… it was kind of weird," he replied.

"Huh… well maybe she saw something?" Finland suggested.

"I don't think so, she was holding her necklace or something and looking up."

"She was probably just thinking, then," Denmark shrugged. It wasn't exactly a secret that Corytha tended to turn her gaze to the sky when she was lost in thought- and it happened often, basically daily.

"About what, I wonder?" Finland mused.

"Ah, it'll be fine! Besides, she's gotta be happy when she sees that museum tomorrow!" the Dane beamed and nodded, his arms folded over his chest. He was eager to overcome any feelings of reservation the girl may have until the time she could leave.

* * *

"So yeah, things have been pretty good," Corytha smiled at her friends after recounting the calm days she'd had over the past week.

"Coolio!" Sam grinned. "You'll definitely have a fun time. I don't think Denmark will let you do anything otherwise."

Reagan laughed on her end and nodded. "I second that notion, he'll probably make sure you're always smiling, that's for sure!"  
"How are you guys doing?" Corytha asked, folding her hands underneath her chin with a hopeful smile. She was feeling better by the minute, being able to talk to her friends after so long. Something about seeing their faces just made things better, no matter what she was going through.

"Pretty good on this end," Sam replied. "Except _some_ body is sour that I beat them at a race the other day!"

Somewhere in the background noise, a distressed Prussian countered her remarks. The girls started to laugh then continued with their conversation.

"What's up with you, Reagan?" Sam went on. "How's life with the Brit?"

Reagan rolled her eyes a bit at the second question but smiled nonetheless.

"It's been fine," She said. "He's pretty much the same way he was when we first showed up, but we've had a chance to talk about some others things. At least I think he considers me a friend."

"Psh, girl of course he would! You're like the master of befriending people!" Sam scoffed.

"Hah! Right."

"No, seriously. You can literally befriend like… anyone. I've seen you do it."

"What? When?"

"You've befriended both the weirdest and the most popular kids at school!"

"...I don't see how that has any correlation to your statement, really."

"Stop using big words with me!"

"But… but they're not…"

"NO. NO SHOOSH."

Corytha laughed at her friends' antics, and shook her head.

"I miss you guys," she revealed in a soft voice. "I hope I can see you again soon."

"You will," Reagan reassured her quickly, giving her an honest smile. "Just a few more weeks until the next meeting."

At this, all three of them seemed to stop, suddenly remembering what else they would be there for. It wouldn't just be to see one another, it would be to determine their fate. Whether England's spell was coming along, whether it would even work. Their entire futures depended on it.

"...Has he said anything?" Sam finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Not much," Reagan admitted. "He said he's been able to get the portal to open in an area relatively close to our area, but we'll probably have a bit of walking to do. I told him that was fine."

"Hell yeah, I'd rather walk home than not get home at all," Sam sighed. "Has he been able to send anything over or is he just tampering with it still?"

"He told me he'd try to experiment with small objects first," she replied. "But he won't give me a number, so I think we're still at a 65% failure rate… all he's said is that it's a really tricky process that will be hard to replicate, especially across dimensions."

"Bah," Sam scowled, glaring away from her screen for a moment. "This uncertainty is gonna kill me before we ever even find out!"  
"I'm with Sam on this one," Corytha murmured. "I wish he could at least improve our chances or something… I'm okay right now, but I know the anxiety is going to get to me the closer that meeting gets… our entire lives are back home, Reagan. We can't… we can't be stuck here…"  
Reagan gave her a sympathetic look, sadness crossing over her features.

"I know, Cori. I feel the same way… I'm sure we all do. All we can do is wait."

"I feel so useless," Sam sighed. "Like all we can do is sit around and pretend we're fine? I'm sorry, but if his spell doesn't come through, I swear-"

"Sam," Reagan intervened sternly. "He's doing the best he can… I've seen him up at 2 AM. He's trying really hard. He's not exactly happy that he brought us here on accident in the first place- he doesn't need any extra pressure right now, okay?"  
For a moment the redhead didn't respond.

" _Okay?"_ Reagan repeated.

"Alright," she mumbled.

"Good. We'll figure this out together, you guys… I promise. And we'll all be together when the time comes. It'll be okay. And Cori, if you do start to feel really bad, let us know, okay? You don't have to suffer through this alone, not like you had to before. You could probably even talk to the Nordics if you wanted to."

"Thanks," Corytha smiled softly. "I don't want to cause trouble for them though, so I'll probably just talk to you guys if I need to."

"Well we'll be ready for ya," Sam grinned. The blonde couldn't help but laugh and they began to wrap up their conversation over facetime. Little did they know that their conversation had been overheard by certain individuals.


	14. Chapter 14- Developments

After hanging up the call, Reagan sighed to herself and dragged a hand through her hair, staring out her bedroom window. She hadn't left her room much all day- England was busy most of the time working on something or other, so they really only talked at the beginning and the end of the day as of late. She didn't mind it much, she had Sadie to give her company otherwise, and Sam had called her several times. America had even popped by twice now for no particular reason and played video games with her, though after a couple hours she preferred to go read one of her books instead. It was becoming a bit of a challenge to be by herself much of the time, and England hadn't let her help much at all, having only asked her time and time again for help finding their general location. So she felt a bit left in the dark.

She wouldn't tell her friends, but deep down, she felt something was wrong with the whole thing, particularly ever since he'd mentioned that blockades sometimes tended to happen when trying to set up a portal again between two places. She'd felt uneasy ever since then. She wanted to remain positive and helpful to her friends, but she was feeling kind of down. But she wanted to be the strong one. She wanted to be there for them… she was the positive one, right? After all, it was as she said, even if it did fail, they'd just have to assume their new roles as a country divided into three…

The door to her room opened unexpectedly. She turned and found England standing there, looking a bit unsure himself as he stepped inside and cleared his throat.

"I-I hope I'm not intruding," he said.

"Not at all," Reagan smiled. "I'm just doing some thinking."

She got to her feet and folded her arms over her chest. "Did you need me for anything?"

"No, actually," he hesitated a bit but eventually sighed and glanced away. "I wanted to ask how you were doing with all of this…"

The strawberry blonde froze a moment, letting her arms drop to her sides. She hadn't expected that at all.

"I… what?"

"I-I may have heard you at the end there," he admitted, his face flushing a bit from embarrassment. "I was just curious how you were taking all of this, what with… everything that's been happening."

She blinked at him before shaking her head and trying to shove her sorrows aside, not wanting him to know the hopelessness she was actually beginning to feel.

"I'm doing fine. My friends are a bit worried right now, but they'll be okay once-"

"Reagan."

She stopped talking, the smile slightly vanishing from her features.

"I'm asking about you, not your friends."

If there was anything the Brit had come to know about Reagan during her time there, it was that she often tried to turn the subject away from herself, at least where emotions were involved. She played the happy-go-lucky role most of the time, never once letting a hint of sadness show through unless it was in compassion for someone else. But never for herself.

"...Come on, you have to at least be feeling some kind of stress?" he went on, not believing for a moment that she was completely okay.

"Arthur, I'm okay, really," she insisted, turning off to the side. "I mean yeah, the anxiety is there, but… like I told Sam, even if the spell doesn't work, we'll still have somewhere to be, if we really are that new country. We'll just have to adjust after a little while."

"Everything you've ever known is back at your home, and you expect me to believe that you're completely okay in the event the spell fails?" he demanded, growing a bit frustrated that she wouldn't just admit she was just as scared as her friends were. "Your grandparents are back there. All of your family and dreams, all your memories- all of it is back there. You have to at least feel something!"

Finally he'd struck a nerve. Reagan turned away from him completely now, leaning a bit against the bed and looking down towards the ground at her feet. She felt tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as she thought of her grandparents and the house she'd spent half of her life in, the college she was going to go to, the things she'd wanted to do… he was right. All of it was back there.

"...Even if I am scared," she murmured, "It doesn't matter… my friends are more important, and they need me to be strong right now… I mean, Sam will be okay, but… Corytha needs something to hold onto. Things will be fine… they have to be."

England frowned and walked over to her, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder. He could tell she was trying not to break down right now already, probably as a result of holding things in all week.

"You don't have to pretend," he told her. "You deserve as much support as they do, Reagan."

Neither of them had anything else to say on that front, so suddenly he changed it to something else, looking nervously out the window.

"...Do you… hate me, for what happened?" he asked slowly. He almost seemed reluctant to ask.

Her head whipped to the side to look at him. Worry and sympathy filled her eyes as she studied his expression and placed a hand on his shoulder this time.

"Arthur, it was an accident… I could never hate you, especially not for something like this," she reassured him. "Sam might be a bit angry, but I know they don't blame you either… you didn't plan for it to happen."

"It was still my fault," he replied bitterly. "If I hadn't messed up, none of you would be in this situation in the first place."

"If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have gotten the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet characters from a show that we like to watch," she said. "Yes, it will get a bit difficult soon, but overall this is an experience that we won't ever forget… we got to meet actual countries and see places we've always wanted to see! We learned things! We met new people! It's been worth it."

He seemed to be shocked with her words. Of all the things he'd expected her to say, this was not one of them. A part of him almost wished she would hate him, just so he could justify his guilt further, or at least say he deserved it.

Eventually he cracked a smile and laughed, shaking his head a bit.

"I'll never understand how you can be so forgiving," he admitted. "But I guess… it's nice to have someone on my side."

They exchanged smiles briefly before he cleared his throat and stepped back, causing her hand to drop from his shoulder.

"Well, I should get back to working on things for a little bit, but I might take a break tonight to watch a movie… i-if you'd like to join me," he added, turning red a little bit. Reagan laughed.

"I'd like to. Good luck with your work," she said, going to grab her book off the shelf.

"...O-Oh, and a-another thing," he quickly added, stopping her in her tracks.

Before she knew it, she'd been turned around and pulled into a somewhat stiff hug, as though he wasn't quite sure how to go about it. She relaxed soon enough and hugged him back, though her entire mind had gone blank and her face was undoubtedly blushing like crazy. This was the last thing she ever thought would happen while staying here- a hug from her ultimate crush in a fictional television show and manga.

"Whatever happens, we'll… We'll figure it out, love," he said.

Her face went even redder. She was practically a rose at this point.

The moment of pure fangirl imagination was over in about a minute, and the Brit abruptly stepped away and seemed to glare at her, though she knew by now he didn't really mean it.

"I-If you tell anyone about this, I'll deny it!" he said, obviously flustered. She stared at him as he left the room before walking over to her bed and face planting into the pillow.

 _He's too freaking cute!_ She nearly screamed in her head.

* * *

Corytha stared intently down at her sketchbook with a slight frown on her face. Her pencil was gripped loosely in her left hand, pencil shavings littered on her lap from the numerous times she'd erased some mistake or another. On the paper before her there was a portrait of a certain friend from long ago- a furry friend, that is.

There was a light knock on her door, causing her to pause and look up curiously.

 _That's odd… Denmark and Finland don't knock like that,_ she wondered. They were really the only two who ever came into her room, save for Sweden who stopped by one evening two days ago and offered her coffee. _Iceland, maybe?_ Though he didn't seem to have much of a reason to talk to her.

"Come in?" she hesitantly invited, turning herself so her legs were off the bed. She didn't fancy being in too casual a position when others were around, most of the time.

Quietly the door was opened. She wasn't used to the silent entry, considering most of the time people tended to walk right in after she gave them the go ahead. To her shock, it was Norway who appeared on the other side of the door, poking his head in a moment before allowing himself to step in completely.

"...Are you busy?" he asked in his usual calm voice. It sent chills up her spine for some reason.

"U-Um, no, just drawing something," she replied, her voice dropping to a volume that almost rivaled his own. He finally started to walk over but stopped and seemed to stare around the room, as if deep in thought. The whole encounter was beginning to feel a bit strange- but she reasoned it was normal for him to act in this way and tried to shake it off. It was likely that the discomfort she felt only came from the fact he'd read her face so easily on the first day and had known she'd lied. She felt bad about it still.

Eventually he seemed to come back and turned his gaze on her. She tensed up a bit on the spot but tilted her head ever so slightly in curiosity from what he may have to say.

"...What of?" he asked.

 _A little odd, but okay,_ she thought, reaching for her sketchbook as he came a bit closer to see it.

"I-It's just a rough collie," she explained as he took it gently and peered down at the sketch of the dog. She'd drawn him as best she could from memory, from the narrow muzzle to the large eyes- even the spotted markings he had near his nose. It was hard to make the long fur on his neck look fantastic, but it was good enough to seem like you could drag your fingers through it. She only wished she'd had a brown colored pencil to fill in his eyes with warmth.

"Is he yours?" Norway asked, noticing of the care she'd taken to make each line as perfect as possible.

"...He was," she corrected indirectly. "His name was Chance."

"..."

"He um… he was taken away when I was eleven," she explained briefly, hoping it would be enough. After a moment he just nodded and handed it back to her. Corytha stole a glance at him again and found his eyes wandering about the room like before.

"Is there something you wanted?" she prompted after a minute or so. While the silence was probably nothing to him, it was growing a bit uncomfortable for her. She didn't know him all that well- at least in person. Of all the Nordics, he'd spoken the least to her directly so far.

"...I was going to ask you something… but I forgot," he stated simply. Cori just blinked.

"Oh."

In truth, he'd actually wanted to ask her if there was magic in her world. He'd been off doing some experimenting like he did from time to time and grew curious with the idea, so he'd come to ask- but then he'd remembered what Finland had said about bringing up anything from her world. It could get her thinking about things again, which they were evidently trying to avoid. Though Norway doubted that not talking about it would keep it off her mind. In the end he'd just decided to pretend he forgot, which now left him having to figure out where else he could take the conversation.

"What are the others up to?" she asked, hoping to strike up a different conversation with him. Even though she wasn't used to him, she didn't want to have him leave, either. It might be a chance for them to be on better terms.

"Not sure," he replied. "I haven't been downstairs."

"Oh?"

"...I was working on things."

She bit her lip lightly a moment before casting a nervous glance towards the floor. She didn't know if she could ask her question without coming across as nosy or something.

"You seem like you have something to ask," he noted.

 _Crap, he really can read me like a book,_ she thought in brief dismay.

"I-I was just wondering what," she shrugged. "I don't want to pry, though."

He seemed to debate answering her question for a moment or two until he sat down on the edge of her bed and places his hands casually on his knees. He stared at the wall in front of him while she sat down a foot away on the bed, her hands clutching the sheets lightly.

"Just some simple spells," he explained. The girl's face seemed to light up a bit at this.

"Oh, right!" she gave a hesitant smile. "You have magic kind of like England does."

He nodded.

"I-I've never seen magic," she admitted, rubbing the back of her neck.

Norway gave her a fixed stare for a short while and ran her words through his head several times. Honestly he wasn't sure how this conversation had managed to happen without him even having to try. So much for forgetting the question.

"...Do you have magic?" he asked.

She glanced at him shyly, still unsure of what he thought about her, but at least they were talking. It was a step in the right direction, or so she hoped.

"Not really," she said. "There's card tricks and illusions, but it's nothing actually magic, in that sense."

"Hm."

Silence settled between them for a short while. Corytha fiddled with her fingers a bit anxiously while Norway seemed to go distant yet again. She wondered if he actually thought when he did this or if he just zoned out. Not that she would try to judge- she probably did that sometimes too. Her of all people would not be the one to criticize someone's quirks- she had plenty, after all. That, and she was just too caring for that anyway.

"...Would you like to see?" he asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Corytha looked over in surprise. "H-Huh? I-I mean yes! Um- if it wouldn't be too much trouble, that is…"

He got to his feet and walked towards the door. When he got there and realized she hadn't followed, he turned to face her.

Everything about him was calm. His face, his eyes, from his somewhat baggy shirt right down to the socks on his feet. She felt a bit strange somehow to see him like this. At the same time, it was comforting.

"Follow me, if you want," he offered. Words escaped her for what seemed like a long time with her jaw hanging open ever so slightly.

 _Get ahold of yourself!_ She scolded inwardly.

"...O-Okay," she murmured. The girl got to her feet and walked behind him to his room, gingerly stepping inside when he invited her to.

For the next half an hour, he showed her some basic spells, from moving objects to controlling small amounts of forces such as gravity or healing. There was a lot more than she thought there was, especially given the humorous nature of the show, but she supposed that life here wasn't quite like the anime as much as they thought it to be. Some things were true, but there was likely a lot more that they didn't know. Her favorite spell was the one where he could create wisps- small to medium sized orbs of blue or blue-green light that lit up the room, even in complete darkness. When he was finished for the time being, it was time for bed, so she wished him goodnight and left.

Now alone in his room, Norway couldn't help but think back to the conversation he'd heard earlier that day. Hours before he'd decided to try talking to her, he'd walked by and overheard her conversation with her friends. Normally he wouldn't have pried- curiosity got the better of him.

 _I wonder what Reagan meant,_ he thought.

When she'd told Corytha she didn't have to go through things alone again 'like she had to before,' it had caused him to feel like there was definitely more to the girl than what meets the eye. He'd already felt that way the first day she'd been there, but now, it was even more prevalent in his mind. And judging from her reply to Reagan's other words, she wasn't about to reveal these things to him or the others willingly.

* * *

The following day proceeded without a problem. Corytha walked with Iceland again that morning, and when she went inside she was treated to breakfast from Sweden for a change. She helped to tidy up in the kitchen then finished getting ready upstairs. When they finally left, she was pretty pumped to see the viking museum- if only because Denmark was so enthusiastic to show her around. He was the definition of eager if there ever was one.

The museum itself was amazing, from the smallest of artifacts to the largest- which happened to be the remains of a viking ship. When she tried to read the signs to learn more, someone often cut in to steal the show, preferring to tell her about it personally- after all, they'd once been vikings themselves. She'd forgotten about that somehow.

After that, they grabbed a late lunch/early dinner and walked around town for a short while. The day was simple enough, and yet she was able to learn so much. It was her ideal type of day, right down to the walk along the docks where she could look out at the water for a bit. Water calmed her somehow- it made her feel safe and secure in a weird way.

That was how the next few days continued. There would be at least two days of rest in between. They went on a hike the next trip, which landed them amongst snowcapped mountains and several lakes. Surprisingly Corytha found herself able to hike for quite a few miles, something she hadn't expected with her physical hindrances, and yet she felt as though there was a reason she didn't feel tired.

It was the sights, the sounds and the feelings. Everywhere around her there was only nature and beauty in so many forms. Everywhere she looked, a new picture was saved into the forefront of her mind. For a short while she literally could not speak when asked what she thought. When she found her voice, she could only say it was probably the best thing she'd ever seen. She meant it.

It reminded her of the trips she used to take in Colorado even more- yet these mountains were taller and even more grand than the Rockies. In the end the girl sat down on a rock by one of the lakes and sat there silently for what seemed to be at least an hour before she was even ready to move on- even then, she was reluctant. The only thing that had convinced her to move was when Finland said they could come back again sometime. She sincerely hoped they would. The cleanness of the air, the lightness of the atmosphere, the view of the water under clear skies with majestic mountains all around her… she felt as though she were home, like she'd found something she'd lost. Perhaps it was just the thrill of a new place.

That trip was followed by seal-spotting in Finland for a day, where they took a boat and scanned the banks of a special lake for a rare ringed seal found only there. Things hadn't been lively much until the end, when Corytha noticed a few lumps along the bank. It was only when a head popped up that she realized it wasn't a log. Proud and satisfied with her discovery, they returned to the house. It made things better since she was now acquainted with all five of them and was slowly beginning to feel normal in their house. She was starting to get a feel for everything, from where each of them spent their time, how they acted when they were in thought, how they treated each other- which was quite amusing at times. She didn't even feel so nervous at dinner anymore. In fact she felt quite welcome around them, as opposed to how she'd felt the first few days. It was nice, feeling as though she belonged there, at least for now.

Never once did they bring up the spell or her world unless it happened on her own accord, as it had with Norway. That's when she realized they were making an effort to avoid the topic unless she brought it up herself. The fact they'd taken notice of such a small detail meant a lot to her. It made her feel like they genuinely cared, even though they didn't know much about her other than what she'd revealed just by interacting with them on a daily basis. Ultimately she felt as though she'd stepped out of her shell with them around somewhat. She felt comfortable… happy, even, being around them.

When they returned from their fifth trip in the middle of the third week, Corytha wished them goodnight and went to her room, tired after another long but fun day. They'd wrapped things up again by walking around town, this time the one just down the hill from the house, and they'd stayed until the sun went down and the stars came out. There were more stars than she was used to seeing- that was when she remembered the northern lights and wondered when she might be able to see them, if she could while she was here. It was one thing she thought would bring her nearly as much joy as seeing the mountains.

She plopped down on her bed and texted Reagan and Sam a short message about her day- they'd often asked about her trips, though she knew it was primarily to make sure she was still doing alright, since the meeting would be coming up soon. Her nerves were rising, but thanks to her newest friends she hadn't felt particularly dreadful yet. Maybe it was Denmark and his contagious happiness, but then again, all of them were fun to be around.

 _I can't believe it's almost the end of the third week,_ she thought, setting her phone down on her dresser and running a hand over its smooth surface. _It feels like I've only been here a few days, but… it'll be a month, soon._

"I'm almost sad to be leaving," she murmured, holding her locket in her hands and looking down at the faded image inside. She traced the outer edge with her thumb. Her eyelids drooped as she began to talk to it, as though someone in it would be listening. "It's been a while since I've felt so safe somewhere… I don't even know how this happened."

Even at Reagan's house, the fact remained that her Uncle- despite being in prison- was still nearby. The area was too familiar. Every time she passed certain areas, she was only reminded at times of bitter things. Lonely, painful nights. She of course felt happy staying with Reagan. She felt happier than she had in a long time, and quickly grew used to the house and being able to roam freely without fear of being beaten. It was a luxury she never thought she'd have again.

Here, she was surprised to find she had that same feeling of belonging somewhere. She could go where she wanted for the most part and not worry about getting chastised for it, and even though she was with five guys, she felt just as safe or even safer than she did with her two friends alone. There were several reasons for this, the first being- they were guys. And there were five of them. The chances of her getting hurt with them around were quite small, she figured. But more than anything, having them around was beginning to feel in some ways like having someone back in her life that she'd lost several years ago. Especially Denmark- though he was arguably far more lively.

"But… I still want to go home," she sighed, keeping her voice quiet in case someone were to walk by her room. She didn't want anyone overhearing this. "Everything I've ever known… everything I ever fought for… it's all back there, and my future. I… I have to go home. I have to go to college and forge my own life… I have to prove that I can do it. Otherwise… all of those years, convincing myself not to die… all of it… would be for nothing…"

She was frowning now, undoubtedly upset with the conclusion she'd just reached. It was the truth, however, and she couldn't deny it was how she felt deep down. In some ways she knew she was still very much unhealed from her time at her Uncle's and everything she'd been through, but at least now she felt like she had a chance. That only chance was back in their world. If she lost it… she wasn't sure what she would do. She wasn't even sure if her life would be worth it, if that chance was gone…

"Staying here though… I'm really glad that I got to," she smiled a bit. Her mind was a swarm of thoughts right now.

Before it could continue, she heard a knock at the door and invited whoever it was to come in. Finland popped inside and smiled at her. She beamed back and moved over a little bit so he could sit down next to her. Once he did, she let her hands rest in her lap and glanced down a bit to make sure her locket wasn't in view. Luckily it wasn't.

"So how did you like today?" he asked.

"It was great!" she replied honestly. "Not that I would expect anything less- every single trip we've taken so far has been fun." He laughed a bit at this remark.

"Glad to hear it. What's been your favorite?"

"Oh, that's a hard one," she furrowed her eyebrows and looked down at the carpet. "I really liked the hike we did, but I've really liked everything… not to mention all the small memories in between. Like when Denmark was so excited talking that he kept walking into things."

She giggled a bit at this, remembering how he would go into these long monologues about certain things for her, only to find himself stumbling off a sidewalk or knocking his head lightly on something he hadn't paid attention to. It was strange, considering how vigilant he could be at other times. He'd caught several things mid-air when she was watching, and when he was determined to get somewhere, he could weave through people like nobody's business. Sometimes he didn't even have to- his presence was somehow enough to get people to move out of his way. When she'd commented that she was thirsty one day, he marched right off down a busy street full of people, and she swore that he went in a straight line. The crowd just parted to either side of him.

Finland laughed, recalling a few of those moments himself since she'd mentioned them.

"Yeah, that was fun too," he commented, closing his eyes as he pictured it in his mind again. He looked back at her and tilted his head a bit, and Corytha had to suppress a laugh at how innocent he looked from such an angle. Though Denmark was honestly the puppy of the group, Finland was close as well. _Precious cinnamon roll,_ she laughed in her head. It was a reference Sam would understand. Ah, the joys of Pinterest.

"So we have the fjord cruise for next week planned," he went on. "Norway got everything set up. It was hard to find one short enough, but we managed with five nights. Although whenever we get back, I think the next day will be the last one, if you're okay with that?"

Corytha nodded quickly and laughed a bit. "Hey, for a cruise, anything is okay with me."

Finland chuckled at her words. Shortly after, she felt herself drop slightly in her mood, recalling how he'd said it would be her last day. Time really had just flown by…

"...Finland?" she eventually asked.

"Hm?"

"I… I'll say this again, when everyone's around to hear it," Corytha said softly, looking down at her hands as she held them together. "But just… thank you, so much. For everything. This has been… literally one of the best things that's ever happened to me, and I don't think- I hope- that I'll ever forget this. All of you have just been so nice and… really I don't think I ever could have asked this much of you, all the things you've done for me while I was here. It really means a lot. Just… thank you."

She only looked over when she felt his hand briefly grip her shoulder. For some reason, though he was smiling, he almost looked sad, in a way.

"Thank you for deciding to stay with us," he replied. "We weren't sure you'd actually agree to it at first, but Denmark was determined! I'm just glad you've had a good time- that's what matters most, right?"

Corytha smiled at him but looked away again in thought. "I think I've had the most fun just being able to hang out with you guys," she admitted. "I feel like I can just… be myself here. Like… I'm surrounded by friends."

She lost her voice a bit towards the end there, hesitant almost to say the word. She wasn't sure, after all, if any of them felt the same towards her. A month was probably a blink of an eye to them, as countries. Did that much time really mean much to them?

Finland let his hand fall from her shoulder as he looked towards the wall in front of them and appeared himself to be in thought for several moments before speaking again.

"...I'm really glad you came," he said. "It's been nice having someone new around that we can show things to- things you haven't already seen, that is. And you're a really nice person to be around. I think everyone would agree with me!"

She laughed lightly at his words and was about to say something when he began to talk again, this time saying things she wouldn't have expected.

"They've all said so, at least."

"Really?"

"Yeah! Denmark rambles about you a lot, usually to me. Iceland is glad that someone actually walks with him in the morning now, I think. Norway hasn't said much, but then again, he does that with everyone. And Sweden likes that you can talk but also be quiet and read for a while."

The girl smiled a bit when she heard that.

There had been a few nights now where everyone else was busy upstairs, so Sweden would steal the living room to himself and read with a cup of coffee. Corytha saw him doing this one night and asked if she could join him. Those were the calmest nights she could remember as she got lost in another world- no pun intended- with the smell of coffee in the air and sweet silence filling her ears. This happened several more times, and he started to make sure there was enough for two cups of coffee. It made her smile. Moments like those were the ones that would be hard to remember when she returned home. She would definitely miss it. The sudden revelation made her all the more sad on the inside.

With the conversation seemingly at an end, he told her goodnight and went off to bed since it was late. As she stretched out underneath the covers and stared at the ceiling over her head, she felt a sinking feeling in her chest as she thought back on all the days she'd spent with the Nordics.

Perhaps she had unintentionally created both a blessing and a curse for herself in coming here.


	15. Chapter 15- Past Revealed

It didn't take long for the girl's demeanor to change following that conversation. Knowing that within two weeks they would have to face returning home or being stuck here, and knowing that even if they went home she would now have some sorrow upon leaving, it seemed that either way she stood to lose something important. With that the stress soon returned and she grew more quiet, often seeming to be lost in thought even when the others were around. Several times Denmark had to call her name to get her attention. She was beginning to worry them with this change in behavior.

With only three more days until the cruise and nine days until she might be leaving for good, Denmark grew quickly frustrated. His attempts to get her to laugh were beginning to lose their effectiveness as she would merely smile then appear confused as to what to do next. One evening he approached her in her room and asked if she needed to talk, but she'd only said she was fine and was just tired. It was a lie if he'd ever heard one.

The dane sighed heavily and plopped back onto his spot in the couch with everyone else in the room. Finland frowned with a worried look on his face.

"Did it work?"

"No!" Denmark pouted, folding his arms over his chest. "She said she was just tired!"

"Cori," Finland sighed, holding a hand to his head in dismay. He was worried like Denmark was after she began to act differently, almost depressed in a way. He couldn't tell if she was upset about the meeting, the conversation they'd had or something else, or a combination of things. All he knew was that he wanted to help her somehow.

"You guys knew she might start acting like this when the meeting came up," Iceland reasoned abruptly. "She's probably thinking about a lot of things right now."

"If she's feeling so bad, why doesn't she try to talk about it?" Denmark complained. "Friends are supposed to help with this kind of thing!"

"Yeah, I wish she would say something…" Finland added.

Norway closed his eyes for a moment and thought back to what he'd learned a while ago. It wasn't much, but it was just enough to know the answer to this particular problem.

"...She doesn't want to cause us any trouble," he spoke up.

"Eh?"

"Trouble? But we _want_ to help," said Finland.

"Whether we want to help or not, maybe she thinks it's better to deal with it alone," Iceland shrugged.

"No way, no how!" Denmark refused instantly. "If something serious is going on, she will not handle it on her own!"

"How can we get her to talk to us, though?"

"You can't force her," Norway advised.

"Maybe we don't have to."

Everyone paused for a moment to look at Sweden, who hadn't said much yet about the situation. He looked between them before looking down thoughtfully.

"She reveals more when she feels a moment's peace…" he offered.

Finland's expression lit up a bit the more he thought about this.

"Oh… you're right!" he piped up. "When she gets tired or feels a certain way she does tend to talk a bit more… she opens up a little bit. Probably more if you keep at it!"

"Then we take her somewhere she might feel like opening up!" Denmark bumped his palm with a fist as an idea came to mind. "She said she wanted to go to the mountains again, didn't she?"  
"That's true! We could take her back to that trail!" Finland exclaimed.

"Maybe just for a picnic or something?" Iceland suggested.

"Yeah, that's it! We'll take her for an easy day out. She'll have to say something eventually!" Denmark beamed, rushing upstairs to tell Corytha what they were doing tomorrow. He wanted to deal with this as soon as possible.

* * *

The next day, Corytha couldn't help but feel suspicious as everyone went about their morning routines. Denmark had told her last night they were going out today for a picnic by the mountains, just for the heck of it. While she suspected him to be a spontaneous planner, she hadn't expected everyone to be on board with it. It was just a little strange compared to what they'd been doing- but she wouldn't stop them. She wanted to go back there anyway, so any excuse to go she would accept.

When they got there she was blown away yet again by the sights before her, but this time they wouldn't have to keep moving. There was a large grassy space with trees beside a lake where a lot of people were hanging around, giving them a perfect spot near some shade to set up at one of the tables. It was around one in the afternoon by this time and they sat down with the intention of having lunch.

"Hey Cori, we're all set up over here!" Denmark called. The blonde looked over from her spot by the lake and got to her feet, walking over to take a seat next to him.

"I wish you would've let me help," she gave him a playful glare and motioning towards the many items set out on the table.

"Bah, it's nothing," he grinned. "Besides, there were already five of us setting up! Now eat!"

He helped her to some food and instantly began chatting up the group, causing her to shake her head. He really was energetic some days.

After a little while, Denmark exchanged a glance with the others at the table. Corytha hadn't spoken all that much and seemed only to dab at her food every once in a while. Finland gave him a worried look from her other side, so he cleared his throat and decided to start a conversation that would be impossible for her to end abruptly as she'd tended to do lately.

"So Cor," he began," How are Reagan and Sam doing? You talk to them, don't'cha?"

"They're fine," Corytha said. "Just hanging out, for the most part."

"What kind of stuff are they doin'?"

"Reagan's been reading a lot, she's done with all her books now though. And I guess Sam's just been training or pulling pranks on Germany with Prussia," she laughed slightly.

"Didn't you say Reagan's dog was brought here too?"

"Oh, I remember that dog!" Finland smiled brightly.

"Yeah, Sadie. She's a red merle shepherd, Reagan's had her since she was a puppy," Corytha explained. "I think she was a birthday present."

"Do you have any pets?"

"Um, not really… I guess Sadie is technically mine too since I help take care of her," she shrugged.

"Huh, you strike me as the type to have quite a few pets," Finland said. "With the way you are around animals and everything!"

"I had a dog when I was younger," she admitted. "Chance... He was a rough collie."

"Oh?"

"Yeah… he was a good dog. He used to howl if you tried to sing, and he tried to corral me and my brother if we went running off… he was funny. But we had to give him away when I was eleven, we couldn't afford to keep him."

"You have a brother?"

At this her face instantly fell. Crap. She hadn't planned on saying that. They'd never asked about her family aside from that first day, when she'd lied about her parents being gone on a trip with Reagan's grandparents. She'd shared information about her friends' families at times, but never once had she let the guard slip about her own past. It was too harsh for her to want to share with anyone, especially since she would be leaving soon. Every now and again she would admit that her mother had got her into singing, or that her father had tried teaching her guitar, but that didn't leave any room for further questioning. She'd never mentioned her brother- she hadn't planned to.

She had to somehow change the conversation before they could pry too far. As much as she respected them and wished she could tell them everything, it wasn't as if they needed to know, and she would be leaving soon anyway…

"U-Um," her voice faltered a bit. "Yeah, Paul."

"How old is he?" Finland asked.

She glanced up towards the sky and thought deeply on it for a moment or two. He had always been three years older.

"21," she lied.

"What's he like?"

"H-He…" her voice was growing softer by the second. She wasn't sure she'd be able to start talking about him without getting emotional. There had to be a way to get out of this before it was too late.

"...What's that?" Norway suddenly asked, pointing towards the horizon. Denmark popped up and peered in that direction, frowning a bit when he found nothing.

"I think your seein' things, Norge. There's nothing there!"

"No, there was definitely something," Iceland added, though he looked a bit bored as he said it.

"Eh? You're actually on your bro's side for this?"

Iceland got a bit flustered at this and glared at Denmark. "Am not! There was something there!"

While they continued to debate on whatever it was, Corytha glanced over and briefly noticed Norway's gaze on her. In a flash he was looking away again, but she was sure of it- he'd intervened on purpose. He could still tell she was hiding things… but he was helping her, and evidently Iceland was, too.

With the conversation about Paul now averted, Finland brought up the weather and it was soon seemingly forgotten. Corytha couldn't help but feel a weight lift off her chest in that moment- she had never felt so relieved in quite some time.

 _That was way too close,_ she thought in dismay. _I can't let myself slip up again like that… what was I thinking, mentioning his name?  
_ Her thoughts battered the back of her mind and brought a pressure behind her eyes that she hadn't been expecting. _England will finish the spell, and we'll all go home, and we'll carry on with our lives… We'll start college and get a degree in something and get a job and make something of ourselves and… everything will be okay, it has to be…_

For some reason she was beginning to lose her mental grip on all the things that had been pestering her during her time here. But it wasn't just being here- it was everything before then, too. Even at Reagan's house, the blonde still had quite some anxiety, especially later at night. It was all beginning to catch up to her these past few days and she wasn't sure how to fight it anymore. Truth be told, for a while now she'd been feeling down. She knew if she told her friends this they would try to send her back to therapy. She wouldn't let Reagan's grandparents pay for that again- not ever. She would figure this out, she just had to keep moving, keep her mind occupied. The entire stay here had kept her from feeling like she could move forward. If anything, she felt held back. She felt frustrated. But more than anything, she felt scared, and lonely to some extent. She had no way of conveying this to anyone.

"Cori?"

The blonde snapped to attention at the sound of her name.

"H-Huh?"

"What's wrong? You look kinda down," Denmark asked. Only now did she really notice the concern in his eyes. Finland's expression nearly mirrored his, and the others were all giving her a steady look of their own. She didn't like having all the attention centered on her. Especially not now, with the way she was beginning to feel. She couldn't even figure out why she felt so upset inside at the moment- being here, surrounded by new friends and a wonderful place.

"I'm alright, just thinking," she forced a small smile that she knew would be unconvincing. Unfortunately, he noticed this time.

"...About what?"

This caused her smile to fade. In the past, he let things slide when she said that. Not now.

"Just… silly things," she shook her head a bit to downplay it. "Anyway, did you need somethi-"

"Cor."

Corytha looked at him again and furrowed her eyebrows, pretending to be confused.

"What?"

"What are you really thinking about?"

Now she was starting to feel the pressure. To make matters worse, no one was intervening this time. She knew they wouldn't, because they all wanted to know.

 _Maybe if I just tell him a bit of the truth,_ she thought uneasily.

"W-Well…. I mean… my time is almost out," she said quietly. "That meeting will be here before we know it. Me _and_ my friends are still worried about how England's spell will turn out…"

"That's kind of a given," Finland smiled sympathetically and placed a hand on her shoulder. "But there's got to be more to it than that… right?"

She looked at him dumbfounded. "What do you mean?"

"Aw, c'mon, Cor!" Denmark complained a bit and moved around the table so that she was looking at both of them. "Do you even hear yourself sometimes? You get so sad!"

For a short while all she could do is blink. Then she got to her feet in a challenging manner and folded her arms protectively over her chest, not quite sure of what was happening anymore.

"Mathias, I'm fine!" she asserted again. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Well obviously!" Denmark stepped closer and held his hands out. "You avoid talking about certain things like the plague! And don't think we don't notice when you get distant during certain scenes in movies, not to mention you just space out at random times."

"You do seem to have either a tired or a sad resting face," Finland admitted, frowning a bit now. She knew they were only worried, but she couldn't help but feel frustrated right now that they were bringing all of this up. There was still a week before she had to leave.

"That's just the way I am," she countered. "Ask Reagan or Sam, they'll tell you the same thing! It doesn't mean anything is really wrong, I just… think a lot, I don't know…"

"When someone looks tired like that, it's usually because they're dealing with something," Finland insisted.

"You can talk to us," Denmark added. "We're your friends, we want to help you!"

"I appreciate that, but I don't need any help," she replied, closing her eyes a bit to try and push away the building soreness in her throat.

"Yes you do! The fact that you keep trying to say you don't, proves it!" Denmark said, throwing his hands up in frustration. "You don't have to deal with it alone, whatever it is. Please, let us help!"

"Denmark, it's nothing important that can't wait until I get home to be dealt with."

"That doesn't matter, you need to talk to someone!" he scolded lightly.

"Denmark, please-"  
"Just tell us what's hurting you!"  
"Denmark."

When the dane kept going on about how he knew something was wrong and that she was just denying it, she grinded her teeth a bit and lowered her hands to her sides. She was growing impatient with his attempted prying. Why couldn't he just let it rest? More than anything, she had to wonder how long she'd been giving them such signs… had she really been revealing so much about her mood during this whole time? Did she really look tired all the time? How could she have been so foolish? As he started saying something else, she finally snapped, eager to get him to just be quiet.

"Let me rephrase what I said," she suddenly spoke up, her voice laced with agitation from her current situation. "You _can't_ help me."

"Why not?" he whined.

She faltered a bit at his tone. He really only wanted to help her. The trouble was, she just couldn't let herself think it was right. If she told them it would only cause more harm than good…

"Because you can't fix any of it," she firmly stated, glaring down at the ground. "It doesn't matter… it wouldn't matter if I told you or not, or how many times I talked about it, or what I did to forget about it because I can't. It will always be there, no matter what. It can't be changed, and it can't be mended…"

She felt something inside of her breaking as she said this. Truly she wasn't alright anymore.

"Once something's been broken, it's never really the same," she murmured.

They all stared at her in silence. Denmark looked as though he'd been shot through the chest somehow, though she didn't understand why. It was her pain to bear, not theirs. But as she looked to Finland's face and then to the rest of them, even Norway, all she could see was a strange silence there. Feelings she couldn't interpret. She'd opened up even slightly, and this was their reaction.

"...I'm sorry," she said, starting to move away from the table. "I… I should just…."

Unable to finish her statement, she turned away and hurried off to the edge of the lake. She clutched her arms firmly and kept her gaze close to the ground, tears building in her eyes.

 _Dammit!_ She yelled in her head. _I let this happen, this is my fault…_

She got to the water's edge and stared at her reflection, choking back a small sob as she saw the redness of her eyes. Already she could feel the ghost of tears rolling down her cheeks. Leave it to her to let things come to this eventually. She leaned against a tree and allowed her head to rest against it as well, not even trying to conceal the pain anymore as it streamed down her face like a river.

A little while later when her eyes were closed, she was trying to relax at the feeling of the wind against her cold cheeks when she felt the warmth of a hand on her shoulder.

 _What?_

She glanced over. To her surprise, Denmark was standing there, and behind him were the rest of the Nordics. She quickly reached up to wipe away the tears that had dried on her face, but was stopped by his other hand. She could only look at him in a state of blank confusion, wary a bit of his proximity.

"...Do you miss home a lot?" he asked. As though it were a question.

All she could do is nod slightly.

"You'll see your family again soon," Finland offered, trying to stay happy as usual. "Everything will be okay!"

The girl gulped lightly and looked away towards the lake, feeling a hollow space in her chest where her heart should be.

"I wish," she whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"..."

"...I believe she means her family," Norway said.

Her eyes quickly turned on him, a tension instantly forming in her veins. He wouldn't. Now, of all times…

"Huh? She'll see them when she gets back. Or I guess when they get back, from that trip," Denmark shrugged.

There was a moment of silence while Corytha tried to quickly think of a way to reply, to somehow salvage the situation, but it was too late.

"There is no trip. There never was."

Denmark stared at Norway for a moment, confusion spreading across his face slowly.

"...What are you talking about?" he asked. "Of course there is!"  
"..."

"What, you…. You think she lied?" he said stiffly, glancing at Corytha now. Finland seemed a bit hurt by this, but when the girl didn't even look back at them or try to say anything in reply, Denmark became frustrated.

"C'mon, Cor, tell him he's wrong! You wouldn't lie about something like that!"

Still no response. He felt a hint of sorrow and irritation in his chest. And then she looked at him sadly, and he knew what the answer was.

"But… but why!" he asked. "Why would you…"

For a while she kept staring out at the water in front of her eyes. She couldn't do this anymore… she couldn't keep lying to them about these things. It was like she'd set herself up to fail long ago, the moment she'd fabricated that story. And now the walls were crumbling down around her.

"...Because I had to tell you something," she finally said, not even bothering to look at him when he seemed to move away from her. She wouldn't blame him- she'd lied. "I had to tell you anything..."

"But they're your family," Finland said in a small voice. Her heart clenched. Everything word stung like ice in her throat, in her body. In the end she smiled sadly.

"...They used to be," she murmured.

After letting them take this in for a moment or two, she decided to elaborate.

"I've lived with Reagan and her grandparents for a year… her grandparents are my legal guardians. They are my family now."

"Then who were you with before them?" Finland asked. Her smile became bitter.

"My Uncle… but I would never consider him family, not anymore…"

"What happened."

Upon hearing that statement, she glanced over hesitantly and found Denmark staring at her with a determined and unyielding look on his face. He wanted answers. And when the King of Northern Europe wanted something, he would sure as hell get it one way or another. Behind him, the others simply looked on. Sweden gave Denmark a somewhat wary look but didn't look like he was going to intervene. She realized she was still on her own right now.

"...Let's just say he wasn't the best kind of person," she attempted to say. He shook his head and stood up a bit taller, his arms folded over his chest.

"From the beginning."

"But-"

The stern look on his face told her she wouldn't be getting out of this one, no way, no how. So she forced herself to look away and pressed herself closer to the tree for some form of stability and comfort.

It took her a while to figure out what she should say and how she should say it. It wasn't easy, considering everything that happened. She knew she would have a hard time remembering certain events and describing others… it was a hell that she'd suffered through for years. And she was still fighting it, even now. Eventually she found her voice and decided that there was no point in hiding any of it anymore. If he wanted to know, then fine. She would tell him.

"I had a normal childhood," she began calmly, hugging her arms tightly to her body. "Me, Paul and my parents lived in a small house out in the country, in Colorado. We lived in a small town and grew up with starry nights and a simple lifestyle. I helped my mom in the garden, me and Paul hung outside a lot with Chance, and some nights we would have a campfire."

"My dad would sit there with his guitar and play music… He tried teaching me, but my hands were too small, so I learned piano from my mom instead. Everything was just… so easy. But then… one thing happened, and it was like everything just… fell apart," she breathed.

"My dad lost his job. He tried for months to get anything at all, but no one would hire him. My mom didn't work, she'd stayed home to take care of us… and when he couldn't find anything, he started to drink a lot. Every week. It got to a point where my parents were always fighting… and finally one night he threw a glass against the far wall that would have hit me if Paul hadn't held me back. He walked right out that front door, and we never heard from him again."

She paused to take a few deep breaths and forced herself to continue. The sooner she got this over with, the better.

"With my dad gone and my mom without work, it wasn't long before the bank foreclosed on our house. We hadn't paid our bills and we couldn't pay off the house. We had to give Chance away. All we had left was a few suitcases worth of clothes. I was eleven when all of this happened," she went on. "When my mom's brother- my Uncle- heard about our situation, he invited us to live with him until we could get back on our feet. Of course, my mom accepted, thinking she could find work once me and my brother were back in school."

A rush of wind went by and threw her hair in her face, obscuring her vision for a moment before she tucked it back and returned her arm to its original position, ignoring the chill on her skin. She was trying hard to ignore the fact that all five of the Nordics were listening to this.

"She never got a job. Instead she got sick. Really sick," she said. "Doctors visited her once a month, eventually, once a week. They couldn't figure out what was wrong… couldn't understand what was keeping her bedridden. I started doing this thing where I'd draw a picture on the wall of what the day had been like… I usually drew sunlight, even on a rainy day, just so she could see something happy, being stuck in her bedroom all the time. Then, one time I was going to tell her about my day… but she wouldn't wake up when I said her name, or even when I pushed at her shoulder. She wouldn't move… and I didn't even notice she wasn't breathing… She was just… gone."

She lost her voice for a moment. Already she was having difficulty, and it wasn't even the hardest part yet… there was plenty more to get through before she would be finished. If only there had been a way to make this shorter to not waste their time. It was a good three minutes before she finally had the nerve to continue, rubbing at the tears building up in her eyes again.

"...When my mom died, me and Paul were closer than ever… we shared a room and he tried to be strong for me, but I heard him cry at night too sometimes… With both of our parents gone, I guess he felt like he needed to be that kind of support for me, not just a brother anymore, but a caretaker. Which was hard, given he had a disease from birth… a problem that made his heart weak. He could never do things too physically demanding… and the doctors had always said he wouldn't make it through college, either. But he really tried to live his life to the fullest. Our Uncle, on the other hand," her tone dropped a bit, an emptiness appearing in her eyes that she was sure they'd never seen before. "He changed, when she died… at first he was just quiet, but over time he got angry… he got violent."

Denmark clenched a fist a bit, but she didn't notice.

"He started to yell at us whenever he got the chance… he blamed us for her death. He pulled us out of school, and we started avoiding him when we could. If we were ever in the same room as him, he would lash out… so we tried to lay low and keep away at all times," she murmured. "He started to drink to the point where he came home drunk just about every single night."

As she recalled the beginning of her Uncle's change, she involuntarily gripped her arms more tightly, tucking her elbows closer to her body. Echoes of the pain shivered up her spine.

"...The first time he punched me," she forced herself to begin. Finland's eyes widened, as did Sweden's. "I was thrown into the wall… hit the back of my skull pretty good… but Paul was not happy. He lashed out at my Uncle and they started to fight… and from then on, we would hide whenever my Uncle came home… but eventually that didn't even matter. Closets, locked doors, old rooms… he would always find us, and Paul would take the beatings."

"When I was fifteen, all of this was still going on… it had been two years since my mother's death, and we were still paying a heavy price for it. Paul was hurt all the time, but he made sure I didn't get involved… he refused to let anything happen to me. One night my Uncle came home with a rifle… he aimed it at us, but neither one of us knew it wasn't loaded. When the sound came out, Paul panicked and hit the floor... And I had to watch as his heart started to have a fit."

Finland clenched his eyes shut and looked away, unable to bear what he knew was coming next.

"His heart failed," she said, ignoring the tears that escaped her eyes now. "Paul was gone. And finally I had no one left but myself."

Had she been looking, she would have seen that Denmark's hands were getting redder from the pressure being placed on them. Iceland just looked at a loss for words while Norway, neutral as ever, was maintaining his usual cool- save for the slight sadness in the depths of his eyes.

"...With Paul out of the way, I became the only target for my Uncle's hatred," she said bitterly, her voice faltering. "He used whatever he had… beer bottles, his hands, knives… it didn't matter, as long as I ended up bruised and bleeding."

Finland let out a mostly silent gasp that she chose to ignore.

"I still have all the scars… my back looks like a cutting board," she laughed painfully and shook her head quickly. "Sometimes I lost all feeling… I lost a lot of weight, because he barely gave me food, barely let me see the light of day… he didn't let me leave the house… and never once did I talk back, or fight back. I couldn't… he'd only get even more angry."

She was starting to cry now, her demeanor growing unstable as the memories began to resurface.

"I really wanted to die," she sobbed lightly. "For a long time, it was all I could think about… the world didn't need someone as pathetic as me in it… I'd lost everything, there was no point... and then I met Sam, and she convinced me to keep fighting… and she got Reagan in on it, and her grandparents called the cops on him… after five long years, I watched as the only remaining 'family' I had was taken away in handcuffs… I moved in with Reagan, and they got me surgery for my injuries and… and paid for therapy, because heaven knows I needed it!"

"I probably quit therapy too soon, but what was I supposed to do?" she asked sadly. "I couldn't make them keep paying for it… so I told them I was fine, but… I know I'm still upset about things… I still have nightmares, and I still get so anxious… I finally found a dream again after all of that mess, and it was to go to college, and get a job, and make a life my parents would be proud of…"

She lost her voice again. She was beginning to regret saying any of this, but she figured it had to come out sometime.

"But I'm here now, and my only chance to make something of myself is just hanging by a thread… my only dream might be taken away… and I'll have to figure out how my life is worth living without it, if the worst happens…"

Her voice cracked a bit as she turned to face them, wanting nothing more than to wrap this up and pretend it never happened.

"I'm sorry I lied," she said, giving all of them an apologetic look. "But I couldn't think of what else to do… Anyway, that's about everything, so…"

When her eyes settled on Denmark, she was shocked by what she saw. She couldn't see his face because he'd tilted his head down. But his arms were now at his sides, his fists clenched so tightly they were turning white- and he was shaking. Believing it to be rage, she was a bit frightened when he took a step closer to her and staggered a bit.

"D-D-Denmark?" she stuttered cautiously. He kept coming closer. She looked to the others for help and was about to ask for it when suddenly he closed the distance, causing her to yelp in brief panic and shock.

But what happened next was not what she had expected. Instead of lashing out at her in some way for the lie she'd told, instead he'd pulled her into the fiercest hug she'd ever found herself a part of. His arms were like iron bars holding her against him and he was still shaking, though for what reason she wasn't exactly sure. All she could feel was herself being completely encompassed by him at the moment, but not in a way that was harmful- it felt more as though he were trying to make sure she wouldn't disappear the moment he loosened his grip.

It was only when she felt tears dropping onto the back of her neck that she realized he was crying. With her face held firmly against his chest, she couldn't move to see anything else, but rather than try to free herself she remained still.

"D-Don't you _dare_ ," he said, his voice shaking, "Apologize for something like that… _Ever._ "

Corytha felt more tears beginning to escape her eyes and soak into his shirt.

"No one should have to lose so much," he whispered. Suddenly his grip tightened and he began to tremble with rage again. "I swear, if I _ever_ saw that man…"

Hearing the threat in his voice, she finally realized where his anger was coming from. Her uncle. He was furious with him- almost to a deadly point.

"If _anyone_ so much as lays a finger on you like that again," he growled. Then his anger faded a bit, replaced instead with sorrow. "Min gud…"

She sniffed a bit but found herself unable to think of anything to say. Luckily, it seemed like she wouldn't have to. Denmark finally pulled back a bit- but he refused to let go- and she watched as Finland came over and hugged her from the other side. His eyes were just as watery as hers, if not moreso.

"Oh, Cori," was all he could say at the moment. Even Sweden walked around and placed a hand on Finland's shoulder and Denmark's, completing a sort of wall behind her. Though Iceland remained a few steps away- not being the type for much contact- Norway closed the space in front of her and let his arm drape across her shoulders. She was surrounded at this point, but oddly enough, she wasn't afraid. She actually felt safe.

They didn't have to say a word. Corytha, feeling for the first time in a long time like a weight had been pried from her shoulders, began to cry lightly and gripped Denmark's shirt loosely in her hands. They weren't walking away or simply accepting it and leaving her behind. They were all standing there and lending her support in their own ways- as much as they felt they could, after hearing everything she'd said in the past few minutes.

Eventually her crying began to slow down and she let herself let go of Denmark, though he kept one arm around her side for added measure. His anger had subsided completely by now for the time being. As she rubbed her eyes, Finland turned her to face him and smiled weakly, but it was deeply heartfelt.

"Thank you for telling us..." he said gently. "You know… you're important to us, even if you haven't known us that long."

"Yeah, Cor," Denmark began to add. "You're a good person and we want you to be happy! You're practically family! You don't need to hide anything from us, okay?"

She looked between them in surprise, her jaw hanging open slightly. She couldn't think of anything to say at the moment. When she looked over at Sweden, he was giving the slightest of smiles. This was true for Iceland and Norway as well- something she thought she'd never see. Before she could start to cry again from being emotional, Denmark led her by the shoulders back over to the table to sit down. He struck up a conversation about something funny that had happened a while back. As they talked, they didn't push for Corytha to say a word. She'd had her fair share of talking today.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And cue the Mary Sue backstory of Corytha, my most timid OC. It actually used to be a lot more dramatic if you can believe it! Corytha was my first ever character I made for writing stories, and I use her in most stories as a dramatic change from depression to hope. Her character was designed to match the way I used to feel when I had major depression for over five years. When I went to therapy, my entire world shifted, and everywhere I looked there were good people and new dreams to be had, and it was like I'd stumbled out of the dark for the first time. So even though her backstory is a bit overkill, I very much enjoy writing stories with her in it, if only to show time and time again that even the worst is not enough to ruin that spark of light in life.


	16. Chapter 16- One Last Visit

That night, Finland came into Corytha's room and gave her a hug goodnight. Sweden came in next, and she was surprised to find that there was no hint of awkwardness or hesitation when he hugged her for the first time. Iceland simply stopped by and told her to sleep well, and that he would wait in the morning for her to walk with him around the lake as usual. Then came Denmark. He gave her a firm hug and even swung her around a bit, caught up in the moment.

"God nat," he grinned. She laughed a bit. A few of them- mostly Denmark- had started to use their native languages for basic phrases when talking to her.

"Goodnight," she replied.

He ruffled her hair a bit and gave her an affectionate look for a moment or two before convincing himself to leave. Otherwise he would probably be tempted to hug her again and not let go this time.

Norway hadn't shown up, so the girl grabbed her phone and decided to text Reagan and Sam the news. They might as well know that she'd spilled the beans today.

* * *

Corytha: "Hey guys? I have something to tell you."

Sam: "What's up girl?"

Reagan: "Hey! What? C:"

Corytha: "Well…"

Corytha: "I may have had to tell the Nordics something today."

Sam: "Ah…. okay….?"

Reagan: "Oh?"

Corytha: "Yeah… they noticed I was upset lately, and eventually Denmark told me to come clean, so long story short they basically know my entire history now."

Sam: "!"  
Sam: "OMG"

Sam: "HOW DID THIS HAPPEN"

Reagan: "It was Denmark, Sam, she just said that. Anyway-"

Reagan: "I mean that's great, Cori, I think? How were things after that? Are you alright? D:"

Corytha: "I'm fine."

Corytha: "Great, actually."

Corytha: "Denmark was mad at first that I lied about my parents… I told them a while ago that they were just on a vacation. But once I told them everything it's like they just, I don't know."

Corytha: "There was a group hug involved and Denmark was PO'ed at my Uncle I think. And then he said I'm practically family so I shouldn't hide anything from them."

Reagan: "Aww, that's so sweet :D"

Sam: "Damn it, I want a Hetalia family"

Reagan: "SAM!"

Sam: "What?!"

Corytha: "XD"

Corytha: "It's fine Reagan. But yeah I'm actually pretty happy about this. They care so much… and at least now they understand more about me. I'm feeling kind of free, in a way."

Reagan: "Well that's great! ^-^ I'm so happy for you. But don't forget, me and Sam are here too if you need us for anything at all, okay?"

Sam: "Yeah, anything at all, you can come to us too (:"

Corytha; "^-^ Thanks guys."

Corytha: "Oh, someone's at the door? I need to get to sleep soon too so I'll ttyl. Goodnight!"

Reagan: "G'night!"

Sam: "Night girly!"

* * *

She locked her phone and set it down, going over to open the door. When she did, Norway was standing there in his pajamas. She stared at him a moment before shaking her head and snapping herself out of it- she still got a bit lost sometimes looking at him for some reason. His eyes, mostly. And everything else. Forcing herself to shove her thoughts aside, she stepped aside and let him walk in. He silently observed her room for a few minutes.

Finally he spoke.

"...This room will feel empty when you leave," he said in his usual calm tone.

She folded her arms over her chest and looked down towards the ground.

"You knew I'd lied about my parents from day one," she stated. "You knew the entire time… didn't you."

"...You're about the worst liar I've ever seen," he replied, glancing over his shoulder at her.

Corytha laughed slightly at this. Of course she was. It wasn't as if she tried often.

"Why didn't you bring it up sooner?" she asked, honestly curious. If he'd known, she thought he would have called her out within a week or so, but instead he'd waited until today of all times to reveal the truth. He looked out the window.

"You didn't seem like someone who lied without a reason," he explained. "It wasn't a big deal at the time… but with how you started to behave, I felt like it was something that should be addressed."

"So you knew it had something to do with my mood?"

"Not exactly… I knew you were upset, but none of us knew about what. The chance just came up, so I took it."

Oh. Well, at least it made sense.

"Oh… well, um… I guess I should thank you," she murmured.

"...For what?"

"If you hadn't revealed that, I probably wouldn't have ended up needing to explain everything from the start… I guess in a way I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders… It was hard, but… I think it needed to happen."

"Would you have never told us all of that?" Norway asked.

She sighed.

"Probably not… I guess I thought I could just hide any details of my home life until we were sent back… and then nothing could go wrong."

"...Go wrong?"

She shrugged as he turned to face her, his face the picture of cool as it usually was, though there was a hint of confusion there now.

"Why try so hard to hide it?" he prompted.

Cori bit her lip and glanced away nervously.

"I guess… well… there's a few reasons," she murmured. "It's my problem to deal with in the first place, so I didn't want to get anyone else involved… you guys have your own lives to focus on. Plus you're countries, you've been through a lot… I'm just some human girl from another world. When the time came for me to go home, I just… there wouldn't be much of a point for you to know my past… I guess in the end I figured it was just better to keep it to myself. Back then, if I'd admitted already that I didn't have parents anymore… I wasn't sure how I could have explained that without going into everything else… It had only been one day, I couldn't just throw my life story at all of you on the spot."

"...I see."

She sat down on her bed to steady herself and held her arms in her lap, gazing absentmindedly towards the far side of the room for a moment. She felt a dip in the space beside her and glanced over, surprised to find Norway sitting there.

"You aren't just some random girl," he said. "Like he said… you're practically one of us. And that means you face nothing alone. 'Kay?"

Corytha looked at him in surprise and felt a smile begin to spread across her face. A strange sort of calmness filled her body as she looked at him and realized something she hadn't cared to notice before.

"...Okay. Thank you."

Norway simply nodded, giving her a meaningful glance before getting to his feet and leaving her room. He shut the door gently behind himself and she sighed softly, listening to the ticking of a nearby clock and staring at the room around her. This was one of the last nights she'd be spending here…. And for some reason, it actually made her sad.

 _Don't think about the sad stuff,_ she chastised herself. _You've wanted to go home this whole time… though I guess we have kind of grown used to this place, huh._

She studied everything, from the furniture to the faint smell of the room, to the picture they'd taken one day while on one of their walks around town. Finland had the picture printed for her and even put it in a little frame for the dresser. The girl picked it up carefully and felt her eyelids drooping, a strange feeling burning in her chest.

 _Why do they make me feel so different?_ She wondered. And for the first true time since she'd gotten here, Corytha wondered if the feeling in her heart was pain.

* * *

The cruise was everything she could have hoped for, and more. She ended up sharing a room with Finland and Iceland but got a bed to herself, while the other three had the next room over. For five days, they went around to different locations, spotted wildlife and went to explore at each stop, including a town and an aquarium.

But there were two things that captured the girl's attention most in those final days. First, how her newfound friends made the trip perhaps the most enjoyable she had ever had in her lifetime, teaching her many new things and keeping the mood light with their interesting personalities and interactions. She never grew tired of Denmark and Norway's little quarrels, or the way Sweden sometimes seemed to dote over Finland, or Iceland's overall confusion.

Being around them at all times of the day had given her little to no time to contemplate what would be coming soon, and it seemed that if Denmark ever caught her thinking, he would instantly pull her into a new conversation.

The other thing that captured her imagination was the northern lights- and they were even more spectacular than she'd ever thought they could be. The first time she'd seen them, her eyes nearly bugged out of her head as she'd stumbled to the ship's railing and stared up towards them with starlit eyes. The nordics had just watched a few steps away, but Denmark was beaming from ear to ear, as though her wonder and glee were contagious.

And that was where she found herself now, on the last night, staring upwards into that endless expanse of darkness and light and color. The others had wandered off to do their own things, either back to their room or to get refreshments, she wasn't sure. She just knew she wanted to print this image onto her mind for as long as humanly possible. She wanted to remember this crystal clear, if nothing else of this trip stayed with her years into the future.

"Still enjoying the view?"

She smiled, instantly recognizing Finland's voice.

"I don't think I could get tired of it, even if I tried," she laughed lightly, leaning against her arms. A faint chill tugged at her hair, calling to her, setting her heart free in a way few things ever could.

Finland came to a stop beside her.

"So what did you think?" he asked.

She blinked, somehow wondering if he meant more than the question seemed to imply.

"It was amazing," she replied softly. "I hope…. I hope I never forget any of this."

She paused a moment, then added, "And I doubt if I'll ever forget any of you."

At this, Finland smiled a bit sadly, turning his gaze on her.

"Hard to believe a month has passed already," he said. "It feels like you just got here."

"I know what you mean."

They stayed in silence for a few more moments, content to enjoy a few more minutes tonight under the glowing northern lights. Few things, she knew, would ever compare to this natural beauty.

"...Finland," she suddenly spoke up, catching his attention, "I wasn't too crazy about this whole situation at first… being in this world, I mean… but… after staying with all of you, I think it was worth it."

He stilled, listening closely to her words. He tried to refrain from showing much of a reaction, because he knew if he let himself show he was sad, she'd probably take notice of it. Truth be told, all of them were secretly dreading the day she left. It had become routine having her around. She'd gotten them out of the house and inspired conversations that never would have happened otherwise. She was like a sixth member of the group now. But her place wasn't here in this world- her place was back on Earth, and with luck, England's spell would work. So they kept their grievances hidden to make it easier for her in whatever way they could just in case she shared similar feelings.

"I'm glad you feel that way," he replied as simply as he could, smiling politely in the process. "It was fun having you."

With the night drawing to a close, she nodded a bit and turned to suggest they head inside when he blurted out.

"Cori?"

"Hm?"

"...I hope you find everything you've hoped for," he said, remembering how she'd broken down talking about her dreams several days ago. The conversation when she'd opened up to them felt so long ago, and yet it had only been a week.

She stared at him, and for a moment he could see the appreciation mixed with sorrow in her eyes. But in a blink, it was gone, and she smiled at him.

"Thanks, Tino."

They returned to their room for the night, and she quickly fell asleep, dreaming about the new memories she'd made since coming here.

* * *

The day of the next- and her last- world meeting came faster than she ever could have anticipated. She ran around that morning packing a few small bags, making sure she had everything, double checking that, and then scoping out the house for anything she may have left and forgotten about. The others went about preparing for the meeting and making sure they had what they needed, which usually only consisted of themselves. There was no need to exchange farewells- they'd already done that the night before, and Denmark had nearly started bawling. Rather, he shed some tears and hugged her close like a stuffed animal. Norway had scolded him for it slightly later, saying it probably wasn't helping with Corytha's situation, but the Dane didn't care at all. She thought once more of Paul and how much the Nordics had started feeling like a family of sorts to her. No wonder she was having a hard time thinking about leaving them behind.

But she didn't allow herself much time to linger on that fact as she hauled a bag downstairs, Sweden helping with the other, and met them by the door.

"Got everything?" Finland asked.

"I believe so."

"Did ya double check?"

"I triple checked."

"Then I guess we can leave," Norway said, turning and walking out to the car. She followed behind Denmark, loaded her bags into the back, then buckled down for the ride to the airport.

The conference building seemed to be bigger every time she encountered it. It had been a month since she'd seen the others. Video chatting with her friends over the phone didn't count. It had been too long since she'd seen another friendly face, felt their hands on her shoulders or got crushed by one of Sam's hugs. She would be glad to see them again. Even if it only made more real the fact she was now leaving more friends behind.

When they reached the top floor, she was quickly greeted by her friends, and she cried out in surprise when they both tackled her to the side. Sam laughed obnoxiously loud until Reagan lightly smacked her upside the head, and then Corytha began to laugh, having missed their antics so much. They sat and talked for quite some time while the meeting began in the conference room. But in the process, Corytha couldn't help but notice Reagan seemed a little off put, every once in a while staring into nothing in particular. It was her deep thinking face. And it usually meant something unwanted was going on.

"Reagan?" she eventually asked, unable to avoid that stare for the fifth time.

"Hm?"

"Are you alright? You seem a bit… distracted," she noted.

"Oh… no, I'm okay. Just thinking, as usual," she smiled. "Maybe a bit nervous. I mean he said he'd have an answer by today, so…"

Sam nodded. "I'm with you on this one… the suspense is killing me!" She cringed lightly, lowering her arms back into her lap. "And so is my body…"

Reagan laughed. "I guess you really did train while you were over there?"

"I told you I did!" Sam scowled. "He went a bit heavy on the weights, though."

"...They're weights. They're supposed to be heavy."

"Don't sass me, Sally!"

Reagan cocked an eyebrow but said nothing more on the subject.

"Anyway, I wanna hear about this cruise you went on!" Sam suddenly piped up, jabbing a finger towards Corytha. The blonde smiled a bit as she began to recall the highlights of the trip.

Soon, the meeting was over, and the girls fell silent as the multitude of countries dispersed out the door. Most of them opted to head straight home while others lingered in small groups to discuss things. When they spotted England, all three of them got to their feet. He walked towards them slowly, pointedly taking his time before sighing and motioning them towards the corner. That was the first thing that caused Corytha's chest to tighten.

After making sure no one could overhear their conversation, England cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak, but Sam jumped to the start.

"You suck at hiding things," she scowled, folding her arms over her chest. His expression and somewhat somber demeanor were enough to alert them at first sight. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed again and closed his eyes.

"I know," he mumbled.

"So what is it this time?" she demanded. Reagan reached a hand out as though to silence her, but England shot her a look and she lowered her hand. Corytha stared down at the floor as she awaited to hear the news. Terror clutched at her heart like a cold hand.

"There's no… easy way to say this," he began, lowering his hand. "But there's been some complications-"

"Of course there have been," Sam seethed, rolling her eyes. It appeared her patience had worn down to its thinnest point.

"Sam, let him talk," Reagan murmured.

After a moment of silence, he continued. "I've had some issues fixing a problem with the spell. I'm not sure what's going on, but something is malfunctioning with the portal… I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer for you girls yet. I'll need a couple more days to figure out what's going on."

Sam turned around at this point and lightly pounded the wall with a fist as she stood there, glaring down at the floor. Reagan lingered nearby with her arms over her chest, glancing away nervously while Corytha closed her eyes and inwardly released the terror that had been gripping her. This was soon replaced by a worry that sent her stomach rolling. She didn't want to know what this complication might be.

"...How soon can you tell us."

"If my next test goes well, I'll be able to tell you in the next few days."

"Not another week?"

"It shouldn't be."

"...I want to know by Thursday night," she growled.

"I'll try, Sam."

All of them knew that there was nothing else to say right now. There was little they could do, next to nothing they could ask, that would ease their discomfort over the next few days. Corytha felt her heart hardening into stone as though her body was shutting down already.

"Just… return to where you girls were staying before this meeting," England spoke up, straightening up ever so slightly. "I'll send word as soon as I can and we'll figure things out from there. I'm sorry I couldn't give you more than that today."

Muttering curses under her breath, Sam gave her friends a quick goodbye before storming off to find the Germanic brothers and inform them they'd be taking her back a few more days. England went off to talk to the Nordics for Corytha's sake, while the blonde and Reagan remained in the corner.

Reagan lightly rested a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Cori… you okay?"

Corytha cast her a tired work. Despite the worry inside of her body, at this point all she could do was stand there dumbly, the world a blur around her.

"...He told you before you came here, didn't he."

"..."

"Has he…. Has he said whether or not we're going home?"

Reagan shook her head slowly. "No… he hasn't. He can't determine that for sure yet."

Corytha bit her lip and shook her head a bit before turning her gaze back to the floor. Her eyes trailed along the small patterns in the carpet while her pulse became a faint roar in her ears.

"...Reagan, what if we can't go back," she whispered. "What if… we're stuck here-"

"We can't think like that right now, Corytha," her friend reassured her quickly. But they both knew even she was losing her optimism by this point. "All we can do is wait, and… no matter what happens, we'll figure it out. At least we still have each other. That's enough for me to know we can make it through this."

"...I hope you're right." Then, after a moment of thought, "I don't want to lose my dreams, Reagan… besides you guys, they're all I have left."

Reagan's mouth opened a bit as those words engraved themselves into her mind. It was the first time in a while since the blonde had so bluntly shown the darker side of her heart.

"Cori…"

"Hey Cor!"

They both looked over quickly to find Denmark waving at her from the other side of the room, his face lit up with a broad smile. The other Nordics were standing around him apparently ready to leave.

"C'mon, we're headin' home!"

Sam had already left out of disappointment, though she'd texted an apology when she got to the car to the both of them. When she was severely upset she tended to vent in isolation. Still, Reagan wished both her friends could have stayed longer to talk things out together. In moments like this she felt it critical to stand together instead of apart… and yet, somehow she couldn't bring herself to try and talk to Corytha much longer.

"...I'll see you in a little bit, I guess," the blonde finally said, lowering her arms in some kind of defeat as she turned to go with them.

"H-Hey, Cori?"

She paused.  
"If you… if you need to talk, or if you want someone to be with you, just… text one of us, okay?"

"...Okay. Thank you."

WIth that, she walked away from her friend and didn't risk another glance over her shoulder. She knew somewhere deep down that if she looked and found her friend's defeated face, that would be the end of it. She would break down right in this room. Because if she saw that kind of look on Reagan's face, then she knew there was no hope left for going home. No hope left to go back to the house that had saved her and the world she'd had something to prove to. And all the memories she'd ever made, everything she'd ever been through, would feel pointless.

They began heading to the car as soon as she reached them. The girl never noticed the exchange of concerned glances between them as she took the lead and silently walked to the car.

* * *

Reagan sat on the edge of the bed with her phone in her hands, turning it over and over as she thought. Sadie lay on the floor beside her feet sound asleep. It was hard enough that she'd known what England's news would be today, but it was even harder knowing the effect it had on her friends. They'd been waiting months now to go home. College was supposed to start soon, and the rest of their lives were waiting on that spell. She knew how much going back would mean to them. It meant four years of college, four years of living together as friends about to start the next chapter of their lives… a chance to achieve their dreams for success on Earth. Home. It hit her like a knife in the chest to think about home, about her grandparents never seeing her again. She'd told herself that even if the spell failed, things could be okay here… but it wouldn't be the same. Not for a while.

She was too lost in thought to hear when the door opened and someone entered the room.

England stood there a moment, taking note of the way her hands were shaking.

"...Did you call your grandmother?"

Reagan jumped a bit, flashing him a surprised look as his own eyes widened.

"I-I'm sorry, love, I didn't mean to startle you!" he quickly said, raising his hands a bit. She breathed out, holding a hand to her chest and giving him a half smile.

"Oh, goodness, Arthur," she said. "It's okay. I didn't hear you come in."

She took a moment to compose herself before addressing his earlier question.

"Yeah, I… I gave her a call," she said.

It was then that his mind finally registered the slight redness in her eyes. Everything about her demeanor seemed off to him. He didn't think before the next words came out of his mouth.

"Were you crying?"

This seemed to catch her off guard. She opened her mouth a bit before stepping back and looking away, setting her phone down on the table next to the bed. She remained silent in answer.

"Reagan…"

"I'm fine," she spoke up. "I just…" she gulped and looked out the window into the night. "I'm just worried, that's all…"

"..."

There was a long silence this time. Neither of them were sure where to go from there. The topic of conversation was too sensitive for him to want to say anything about it… he wasn't sure how to provide comforting words about the whole situation that was his fault to begin with.

"Britain," she said softly, startling him for a moment. She hadn't used that name in several weeks. "If the… if the spell fails," she began, her voice cracking slightly, "What… what are we supposed to do?"

He inwardly sighed and thought for a moment. Then he walked a bit closer and looked out the window with her.

"Well… the three of you being countries of your own will have to eventually go to your lands and learn how to fill your role, but… you have all of us to ask for advice. It's really not so hard."

"...Will we have to change who we are?"

He cast her a confused glance, to which she held her arms and glanced away as she elaborated.

"I-I mean, our hobbies, our interests and goals… do we have to give all of that up?"

Britain watched her for a long moment as he tried to understand what she meant. It didn't take him long to figure out the answer, though, once her words clicked in his mind. A small smile settled on his features.

"No, Reagan, you don't. See… even if our lives get pretty busy, we all usually still have time to ourselves like anyone else does. And if there's something you want to do with the time you have, there's nothing stopping you from doing it."

The strawberry blonde looked at him in surprise as though she'd expected a far different answers. But then her expression eased, and a distinct tiredness filled her eyes. It was getting late. She'd need to get to sleep soon.

"...Okay."

After another silence, he bit his lip lightly and began turning to leave when she started speaking again. The tone of her voice made him stop abruptly.

"I think what I'll miss the most is my grandparents, really," she admitted softly. Something in his chest tightened as he looked at her now. He couldn't place why, but he knew he felt bad. The sorrow in her reflection on the window was enough to bother him.

"...What about your parents?" he found himself asking, as she'd never elaborated on what she'd said long ago about living with her grandparents. In fact all of the girls' histories were unknown to him and the others. As if deciding it was okay to tell him, she turned to face him but kept her eyes off to the side.

Calmly, she answered, "My parents divorced when I was twelve, and my mom died in a car accident a few months later."

His eyes widened quickly.

"I was sent to live with my Grandma because we were really close. I've lived with them ever since… and I was going to take up Journaling thanks to my Grandpa. He was a photographer for nature magazines."

Britain nodded dumbly at this information. Silence stole away whatever words he could have said. Just like that, he knew she'd lost two significant people in her life. He wondered how she ever carried on through such a loss when the people he knew best were practically immortal as he was.

"...And your friends…?"

"I-It's not really my place to say," she admitted, giving him a look that practically begged him not to press further. "All I can say is that they've had their fair share of loss, too. Sam's looking forward to finding some sort of passion in her life, and Cori…" she paused a moment. "Cori wants to make her life worth living."

Taking those words to heart, he let his previous question drop. He wanted to talk to Reagan more, wanted to tell her he was there if she needed someone through all of this, wanted to say he would do his best to make the spell work so she could see her grandparents again. But he knew none of it would make it past his lips. So instead he nodded, said goodnight to her, and strolled towards the doors.

"And Arthur?"

"Hm?"

"No matter what happens with the spell… I don't blame you for any of this."

"...Thank you."


	17. Chapter 17- Crashing Down

The next two days were a silent agony for all three of the girls as they tried to go about their usual they were quite settled in their current locations, there was no amount of time that could prepare them for whatever news was to come when Britain finally figured out the details of his spell. They were restless, often checking their phones for any news on the matter, though even when they pestered Reagan all she said was to wait until Britain sent something himself. If there were any hints as to what might happen, she wouldn't budge.

Corytha grew more quiet than usual and often seemed to wander from one room to the next as though in a sort of daze. She'd taken to her old habit of picking at the skin on her fingers and lips, which had caused her to bleed twice now. Both times Denmark and Finland began to fuss a bit while Sweden got her a bandaid for her finger. With every glance, they found her checking something on her phone or glancing towards it as though the screen were going to light up with the news she was waiting to hear. And they could all tell she was secretly dreading it.

On the third day, Denmark walked into the living room and found her reaching for her phone again when he reached to grab it and pulled it out of range. She looked at him quickly in surprise.

"...U-Um… hi?" she said awkwardly, cocking an eyebrow in a silent question.

"You've been checking this too much, Cor! You gotta let it rest for a little bit," he complained, stuffing it into his pocket.

"Denmark, it's kind of important…." she murmured, fixing him with a look that made him want to scoop her up in a hug. He refrained. As hard as he could.

"I know, but you'll go blind constantly staring at this screen all day! Just give it a few hours at least, and then check!" he whined a bit and plopped down on the couch beside her, folding his arms defiantly over his chest. He knew she was worried, but she was only making her anxiety worse by playing along with her fears. His first thought was to distract her, but how?  
"Alright, fine, you hold it for me," she glanced towards the clock, "But I want to check it at five, okay?"

"Okie doke!" he grinned. She smiled a bit. His personality really was contagious. No wonder he reminded her of her brother- he was often the same way and knew how to make her smile, no matter what. It was a bittersweet feeling.

"Anything ya wanna do today?" he asked.

"Not that I can think of."

"Hmm… well, we can just watch tv or something," he shrugged. "You could draw, too."

"Yeah… maybe I'll do that."

She walked upstairs to retrieve her sketchpad while he fumbled with the remote to find a decent channel. The rest of the Nordics were off doing their own things, Iceland and Norway out on some errand while Finland was upstairs listening to music in his room. Sweden was in the kitchen reading with a cup of coffee. When Corytha returned, she sat down beside Denmark and turned to a new page, letting her pencil drift across it in any way her hand decided to.

Thanks to her earlier thoughts, she ended up working on a portrait of Paul from memory. It was rough, since the photo she had of her family in the locket was so old and faded too. She could only work from what she remembered of her last few years with him. She tried not to think of the last time all too clearly, though.

It didn't take long for his face to appear on the paper. She paused a moment as she worked on the light brown of his hair, almost startled at the light accuracy of the image before her. There was a light pressure on the back of her throat until she caught Denmark staring and snapped out of it, beginning to sketch again.

"...Is that your brother?" he asked, his voice calmer than usual.

"Yeah… from what I can remember," she replied softly. "It's been a while."

She felt him rest a hand on her shoulder and stiffened lightly at the touch. "Cor…"

After a moment, she hesitated before setting her sketchbook down and pulling her locket into view. Now felt as good a time as any to finally let someone else see it, and she felt oddly comfortable around him now, as much as she did with Reagan or Sam. He watched in awe as she set the silver oval into her palm and pried it open, revealing a faded picture inside of her with her family. His eyes softened when he saw her perched upon her father's shoulders, smiling as though there were no pain in the world and no sorrow.

"I don't even know how old this picture is anymore," she laughed a bit. "This is the last family photo we took together, though."

"You're so little," he teased lightly, halfway grinning. There was a small twinkle in his eyes that nearly made her blush as she smiled and returned her gaze to the picture. She pointed towards Paul.

"I don't know why, but… if it's not too bold to say, you remind me a lot of him," she said.

"Your brother?"

She nodded. "He smiled like you do, and he never failed to make me smile, no matter how I was feeling."

Denmark beamed, not even bothering to question the warmth he felt in his heart at those words. It was a strange sort of feeling, one he got when looking after the other Nordics from time to time.

"A pretty big goofball, too," she mused aloud. He ruffled her hair, causing her to laugh a bit as she gazed at the engraving on the inside of the locket's lid.

"What does it say?" he asked.

" _Search for your happiness. Life is too short to do anything less,"_ she quoted, tracing her finger around the edge. "My mom got this for me… I think she had that engraved, too."

"What was your mother like?"

Corytha glanced up towards the ceiling. For some reason, unlike what she'd expected, it felt relatively easy to talk to him right now about her family. Where usually these conversations left her in tears, this time, she was almost glad.

"She was amazing," she murmured. "Always taking care of us, tending to her garden… she taught me piano and how to bake simple things. She was a great singer, too… some of my greatest memories are of these really small moments between us, where she'd be humming some tune and doing something as simple as drying my hair or helping me get a dress on when I was little. Something about her was always just… calming, and kind."

"So she's a lot like you?"

Corytha paused a moment and cast him a quick glance, as though surprised to hear someone say it. But the more she thought, the more she could see the similarities. Her eyelids drooped. "I suppose so… though she was more outgoing than I am."

"I bet you could be really outgoing if you talked a bit more," he smiled.

"Maybe… I'm more of a thinker than a talker," she admitted with a shrug.

"You could make everyone think you're mysterious, like Norge!"

"What are we talking about?"

The two of them looked over to find Iceland and Norway standing in the doorway, apparently having just returned from their trip. Corytha snorted a bit as Denmark started laughing. Norway just blinked then shook his head, too used to these sorts of things to care. Instead they put their coats away then sat in the living room to watch tv with them while the day passed by slowly.

* * *

Some time later, they were in the middle of watching a show Finland liked when Corytha glanced at the clock and noticed the time. She looked at Denmark quickly and felt her pulse pick up slightly from the surprise.

"Denmark, can I have my phone please?" she asked a little bit too quickly.

He pouted a bit, but when he saw that it was past seven he decided she'd done good in waiting this long. He reached into his pocket but paused before rubbing the back of his head with an embarrassed grin.

"I forgot I put it back in your room when I went upstairs earlier," he said.

"Oh, okay. Well I'll be back down in a moment," she said, getting to her feet. She carefully stepped around Finland, who was seated on the floor, and made her way upstairs at a brisk pace. Sweden followed her route to her room with a slightly worried glint in the back of his eyes.

Shutting the door softly, Corytha reached for her phone on her bed and went to unlock the screen when she saw it- one new notification.

From Arthur Kirkland.

Faster than she'd ever thought possible, she was seated on the bed and messaging him as fast as her fingers could type.

* * *

Britain: "Corytha? Are you there?"

Corytha: "Sorry, I was downstairs. Yeah, I'm here!"

There was an uncomfortable silence for several minutes. He'd sent it over an hour ago, was it possible he wasn't even by his phone anymore?

She was praying silently for him to answer when she saw that he was typing again and bit her lip sharply.

Britain: "Ah, there you are. I was wondering when you'd reply."

Corytha: "Denmark stole my phone and put it upstairs so I wouldn't be checking it every other second."

Britain: "I see…"

Corytha: "So what is it?"

Britain: "Right, well… I've been working on the spell the last few days now."

Corytha: "Okay"

Britain: "And I believe that I found the answer to that problem I was talking about at the meeting."

Corytha; "Oh?"

Britain: "Are you sitting down somewhere?"

Corytha: "...In my bedroom, why?"

Britain: "Look, um… there's really no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it."

Britain: "I found the problem."

Britain: "What I mentioned before about worlds sometimes putting up walls after the dimension has been tampered with… it happened again. I was trying to send test subjects through the portal and they kept coming back here, like they were being rejected from your universe."

Corytha: "...So what does that mean?"

Britain: "It means that no matter what else I try to remove the barrier, it's just not going to remove it. I don't think any portals to your world are going to work again… it's like they've been sealed off."

Britain: "I'm sorry Corytha but there's nothing I can do to change this."

Britain: "The spell is a failure and I can't send you home."

Britain: "I'm really sorry, love."

Britain: "Corytha, are you still there?"

Corytha: "yes"

Corytha: "i'm here"

Britain: "I didn't mean for any of this to happen…"

Corytha: "i know"

Corytha: "sorry i have to go now"

Britain: "Please, wait?"

Britain: "Corytha?"

* * *

Hands trembling wildly, she set down her phone and abandoned it on the bed, stepping out to the center of the room. Everything around her felt numb, the world a buzz in her ears as she lost the feeling in her knees and dropped down, her phone discarded nearby. It took her several minutes to process whatever had just happened.

 _I can't send you home._

 _The spell is a failure._

 _I can't go home. We can't go home,_ she thought, only basic thoughts able to fill her mind. _We're countries, and we're stuck here. We can't go back. We can't…_

Tears flooded her vision, followed by breathless sobs as she struggled to comprehend just what this meant. It meant no more future she'd dreamed of. No more chances to make something of herself. No college, no living with her friends. It was all gone, just like that.

She slumped down further and stared at the floor, bringing a hand up to her face as the tears trailed down her face in small streams. When she began to cry, she wasn't sure when she would stop.

* * *

Still watching Finland's show, fifteen minutes had passed since Corytha had left to check on her messages. Denmark was tapping the arm of the couch restlessly with his fingers until finally he looked towards where her door would be on the second floor with worry.

"She should be back by now," he mumbled, something about the situation making him anxious.

"Maybe she decided to play some games on her phone?" Iceland suggested.

"She hasn't exactly been in a gaming mood…" Norway noted. Finland nodded his agreement.

As Sweden opened his mouth to speak, they heard a faint but distinct thump against the ceiling where her room was. Finland quickly muted the show. There was silence throughout the house.

Then, as though having heard something wrong, Norway got to his feet and looked towards her room with his mouth slightly open in surprise. It was all Denmark needed.

Shooting up, the Dane raced for the stairs with Finland close behind. The rest followed at their own pace, but Mathias was the first to approach Corytha's room and push the door open abruptly.

"Cor-!"

What he saw made him stop in his tracks, arms spread wide as he stood in the doorway. Finland paused behind him with Sweden behind his other shoulder, Norway and Iceland bringing up the rear.

The teen was a mess upon the floor, curling up in a shaking ball as she cried into her arms. When she heard the door being opened, she'd looked up in surprise, her eyes and face stained with traces of tears that were still falling. As though ashamed, she quickly averted her eyes but was unable to answer or tell them to leave. Instead, she hid her face in her arms again. Finland ducked under Denmark's arm and was quickly at her side, rubbing small circles on her back and asking her what was wrong. The Dane was next, sitting on her other side and holding onto her arm as though it would somehow give her support. He wasn't sure what to do.

When the others walked in, Norway was the first to spot her phone sitting off to one side, the screen still lit up. He picked it up gingerly in his fingers and squinted slightly as he scrolled through the text on the screen. When he saw the last few messages sent, everything fell together.

Sweden and Iceland read it next, then passed it to Denmark who kept asking to see what was going on. His expression immediately fell.

"..." _Cor…_

Absentmindedly, he passed the phone to Finland, who put a hand to his mouth as he read the texts. When all was said and done they remained in silence for several minutes as Corytha wept all her sorrows into the fabric of her shirt.

After a while her tears finally began to run low. They had long since dried on her face, making her eyes dry and sensitive to light when she finally glanced up a bit. Every now and again she sniffed, feeling completely undone and vulnerable in this position with all of the Nordics surrounding her. Finland had resumed rubbing her back while Denmark had at some point gotten closer and rested his head on hers, holding her hands as well. Norway was sitting in front of her with her phone turned off and tucked away in his pocket.

Soon she swallowed and stared down at her lap, lip trembling as she found the strength to say something.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"There's nothing to apologize for," Finland replied quickly.

"Yeah, Cor, don't be silly," Denmark added.

She reached up to rub at her eyes a bit and refrained from cringing when they stung.

Sweden said something to Iceland, and then the two of them left the room to do something. Corytha gradually relaxed her tense muscles and sat up a bit straighter, feeling like a mess.

"I-I must be a pretty sight, huh," she sniffed, laughing slightly.

Knowing her light attempt at humor was likely a mask, none of them laughed along.

"Cori…" Finland started. She glanced towards him cautiously, not sure what to expect. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I don't know," she whispered. She blinked away a thin film of tears that threatened to form again.

"It'll be fine," Denmark said, his face full of concern. "We'll get you through this! We're all here!"

"Right," Finland smiled as reassuringly as he could. "You can talk to all of us!"

"Thank you," she replied weakly, pressing the base of her hands against her eyes for a moment. Moments later, Sweden and Iceland returned. Sweden came over with a cup in his hands and held it out to her. Taking it hesitantly, she realized it was cocoa, and the warmth of it eased the trembling in her hands. She thanked him quietly and he merely nodded with a small smile.

She blew on it gently and forced herself to take a sip, hoping that somehow the warmth would soothe her. To some extent, it did, though her mind was paralyzingly numb at the moment.

For a while, no one said a thing. For most of them there really were no words. Nothing they said would likely console her right now- not when she'd just lost several things they knew meant a lot to her. Hope was probably the last of her concerns. Everything had suddenly just stopped. It was all just… gone.

After what seemed to be at least half an hour, Iceland dismissed himself from the room, having nothing to do or to say that could help. Sweden soon followed, probably off to tidy up the room downstairs. Finland wanted to do something, anything, but knew that right now nothing would reach her. She needed time to recover from the news. Though he was reluctant to leave, he forced himself to his feet and convinced Denmark to come too.

In the end, she was left sitting there with Norway, who for some reason hadn't left yet. Had she been paying much attention she would have wondered how he had stayed longer than even Denmark had, when he hadn't much to say in the first place, let alone now of all times. But rather than think of these things she just continued to stare at the cup in her hands, her chest sore in literal heartbreak as she tried desperately to find something worth holding on to. There wasn't much to go by.

Fifteen minutes later, an unexpected voice cut through the silence that had taken ahold of the room.

"...How do you feel?"

She blinked, barely registering his words in her mind. She was lost somewhere- distant. Eventually she said, "Numb…"

Norway considered her for a moment, then moved so that he was leaning his back against the bed beside her rather than sitting in front of her. He tilted his head back and gazed at the ceiling.

"Do your friends know?"

"...I-I would assume so," she said in a light voice. She wasn't sure she could talk louder if she tried. Her mind was reeling with everything and nothing all at once.

The seconds went ticking right on by. To the girl, space and time no longer even seemed to exist. It was all just an illusion to her. Just an unnecessary detail compared to all else. Nothing made sense. It was like an out of body experience, though she was still trapped in her frail form, which- though it no longer trembled- now felt weaker than it had ever been.

"I thought we were going home," she whispered.

"..."

"I should have known better," she went on, squinting towards the far wall as her vision lost focus. There was a sort of bitterness lacing her words that caused him to look at her now. "Everything always ends in tears…"

"You couldn't have known this would happen," he replied.

"..."

"Whatever the case, all you can do is rest and move forward."

"...I don't want to be a country, Lukas," she whispered. Without a second thought, she glanced towards him, and for the first time in a while she did not look away. "I can't do it… it's too much for me-"

"You can't or you won't?"

"How does it even matter?" she replied. "We never should have come here in the first place…"

"That's beside the point now. You are here, and you are a country."

"I can't _be_ a country-"

"Yet you are," he interrupted. She had to realize that no amount of denying the fact would somehow take the truth away. Suddenly, however, she stood on shaking knees for a moment and folded her arms over her chest, walking away from him while the truth came out.

"Fine!" she said, her voice raising for a brief moment. "So I'm a country. Fan-freaking-tastic," she said sarcastically, turning to face him again as he got to his feet behind her. "I _won't_ do it because I _can't_ do it!"

"Because why?"  
" _Because I'm scared!"_ she shot back abruptly. Both of them stopped, allowing the weight of her words to sink in. A rim of tears began to develop again in her eyes, causing her to look away in shame. Her face felt heated from embarrassment mixed with sorrow.

To her surprise, Norway walked over, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder.

"What are you afraid of?" he asked.

Corytha thought over this question again and again in her head, trying to find some sort of response that would answer it without prompting more questions. Yet, as she tried to figure it out, she realized there was far too much to explain right now. Far more than she wanted to at this time, at least. But that didn't matter. Not as those tears spilled down her cheeks and the back of her throat grew sore again.

"...E-Everything," she choked out. The moment she said it, all of the reasons why came flooding into her otherwise shocked brain.

 _My dad is gone. My mom is gone. My brother is gone. My family is gone. My home is gone. My future is gone. My dreams are gone. My world is gone. My life is gone. There's nothing left._

Instantly, she began to double over again, choked sobs forcing themselves out of her lungs. Normally, he wouldn't have been sure what he wanted to do at a time like this, but the others had all gone downstairs thinking she'd calmed down. He didn't want to leave her here in her current state. So he did the first thing he thought of and eased her to the floor so she could sit, and let her clutch his sleeve as she cried for a while longer, releasing with it all of her frustrations that had quickly built up.

Twenty minutes later, Corytha sat quietly beside him, her head resting against his shoulder. Her breathing had calmed back to a normal pattern, and a sound from outside the door told Norway they were watching shows again, though several times he could hear someone making their way upstairs before changing their minds and returning. Probably Denmark being impatient.

He knew the girl would be in shock. After the story she'd told them weeks ago, he had no doubt this must have felt horrid to her. All of her aspirations suddenly being ripped away by a few simple words. Because of an accident that should never have happened. Now she was trapped here, and though she still had her friends, she would be forced into a role she never asked for- and, as she'd said, she was terrified.

While he wasn't entirely sure why she feared being a country, he knew the idea probably came with a whole host of anxiety and questions regarding what was expected, what could happen, and what they were supposed to do. It was too much all at once, the reality that her entire life was gone and replaced with something she couldn't begin to comprehend. He thought all of this as she remained still and silent as the grave beside him. He had no doubts she may have cried herself to sleep, but didn't feel the need to check yet.

He contemplated for another good ten minutes about what him and the others should do from here while she dealt with the news emotionally. Were they to send her to England's? Where were the girls going to go? Who would tell them what to do from here? There was a lot to figure out in the coming days and weeks.

Half-in and half-out of consciousness, the girl adjusted herself sleepily and mumbled something he didn't catch the first time.

"Hm?"

"Can't… stay here," she murmured with her eyes closed.

 _Practically asleep,_ he noted, observing how her body was sluggishly positioned and didn't react when he went to move. Carefully, he lifted her bridal style in his arms and carried her over to her bed, where he placed her under the covers and left them just beneath her chin.

He returned her phone to her dresser then paused and gave her one last look.

"Get some sleep," he said, knowing she probably couldn't hear him anyway. Then he turned off her lights and left the room.

* * *

Back downstairs, Finland lowered the volume of the television when Norway returned to his usual seat on the couch. They looked at him expectantly.

"She's sleeping," he confirmed. Denmark sank into the cushions.

"This is terrible!" he said, glaring towards the ceiling. "She was so upset…"

Finland frowned. "I was sad that she would be leaving, but… now… I wish she could have gone home."

Iceland sighed. "I wasn't sure England would ever manage that spell… it was all by chance to begin with."

"What's she supposed to do now?" Finland asked. "I mean… I know she's a country and all, but the poor thing wouldn't even know where to begin!"

"...We'll have to give England a call," Sweden advised. "See what he wants us to do."

Denmark groaned, throwing sad looks towards Corytha's room on the second floor. "I wish she could just stay with us," he said. "She's better off here than anywhere else…"

They all went quiet, unsure of what else to say. The night ended on that note, each and every one of them unsure of how to proceed. Eventually they all went to bed asking themselves the same questions.

What happened now?


	18. Chapter 18- Progress

For the next four days, Corytha remained much like a ghost in the Nordic household. She at times drifted aimlessly between rooms, usually only to retrieve something before returning to her bedroom. She'd refused meals at first, though with Finland's persistence and Sweden's resolve, she never went a day without food despite her claim of no hunger. Sometimes she would be in tears again- though if she heard someone approach she attempted to stop herself- and other times they found her asleep with her headphones in, having fallen asleep to some tune or another. Reagan and Sam had both called several times, claiming she wouldn't text them back or answer their calls to her phone. She'd become a recluse and isolated herself from anyone, barely sparing even the Nordics much beyond a greeting and a passing glance. They all understood why.

And yet, to some extent, they wished she would open up instead.

Denmark tried several times, his insistence growing a bit less with every refusal she had to his requests for things as simple as a walk around the lake. Finally, they'd received a call from England on the fifth day of her silence.

At some point the girls would need to start being informed about their countries and what jobs would be expected of them. They'd need to meet their leaders, and eventually- it was hoped- move to their own residencies. Of course, the countries were to offer up as much support and assistance as they could muster to the new nations. No one was sure when the process should begin- Reagan seemed to be alright with the awkward transition thus far, and had already started asking some questions. Sam was still in a pit of denial, but as her hardened walls were steadily reasoned with by Germany and Prussia, she'd eventually calmed and opened her mind more to the idea. Neither of them were truly happy at the moment. There would be a lot of grieving to be done and fears to overcome. But at least they were closer to accepting it, regardless as to how it made them feel.

Corytha, however, was lost to them all by this time. After all she had been through, it was quite clear that a blow like this could substantially change her. How, no one was sure. The question was prompted again when Reagan called them for the third time.

"She's still in her room?" the girl asked, the sadness in her voice easily heard through the phone.  
Finland only sighed. "Yeah… she's starting to eat a bit more, but otherwise it's still the same routine."

"I see…"

"I wish she'd talk to us already," Denmark whined, staring at the ceiling. He'd become so restless, it was hard for him to not charge into her room and force her outside. The others always made sure to keep him in check. There was some unspoken agreement between the rest of them that the girl should come out in her own time.

"I know, Denmark… I wish she would too," Reagan murmured.

"Reagan, do you know why it's hitting her so hard?" Finland asked, the question one that was shared amongst the rest of them.

"..." for a moment, the line was silent. Then, the girl breathed out and started off slow.

"Well… she told you her history, right?"

"Yeah."

"And did she ever explain why she wanted to go home so badly?"

They all looked to each other for a moment, trying to think back to any particular time.

' _But I'm here now, and my only chance to make something of myself is just hanging by a thread… my only dream might be taken away… and I'll have to figure out how my life is worth living without it, if the worst happens…'_

"If the worst happens…" Norway said aloud, sparking the hints of a memory for all of them.

"She… she had said that if she couldn't go back, then her life wouldn't be worth living," Finland confirmed. They'd forgotten that statement. It felt like so long ago that she'd uttered those words, after spilling to them her tragic life story.

"She's been through a lot," Reagan explained. "To her, it's as if… everything she cares about, it always disappears. When she came to live with me, she acted a lot like she is now… quiet, always hiding away somewhere, isolating herself… but with time, she got so happy. She started to be more like the girl she used to be, or at least reinvented herself. She had hope again."

They all listened intently, as if afraid they might miss something of crucial importance, something that could maybe help them help her.

"Corytha finally felt like her life could have meaning again… that's why her dreams are so important to her. They're all she feels she has. I'm sure there's more to it, but… without her dreams, it's like the point of her whole life has been ripped away a second time… at least, I assume that's how it must feel."

"Do you know why she's afraid to be a country?" Norway suddenly asked. Everyone looked at him in surprise, not having expected him to speak, let alone ask such a question.

"...I can only assume it's probably because she fears the worst," Reagan replied after a moment of thought. "She has a tendency to dread the worst of things. I… I'm only okay, because I realize that things sometimes… happen. And we can't control that. I figure some way or another, I'm supposed to be here, and… now there's new opportunities, even though my own dreams are gone. Sam was frustrated at first, but she knows that hating it won't get her anywhere, so she's trying to redirect that anger into progress in her own way. But with Corytha, I think she fears being optimistic about anything… I think she's hesitant to believe anything could turn out well, because of how many times it hasn't. She's lost a lot, and now she finally gained something else, and now that's gone too. She could fear any number of things… could be the pressure of representing a lot of people, could be fearing she can't handle the tasks required… it could even be the fear that as a country she could be attacked or captured or something, I don't know. But that paired with an overall sense that she just can't keep anything happy… it stops her from moving forward sometimes. Sometimes, all she knows is darkness."

"..." Having had his question answered with more detail than he'd thought he could get, Norway returned to his usual quiet self and looked away in thought to process what he'd heard.

* * *

Upstairs, the blonde was focusing her mind on any little detail she could see outside her window. The chilly air that radiated off the glass made her face feel of frost, but she didn't mind. Nearby, the portable tray that held a lunch Finland had made for her sat with it's contents disturbed. Somewhere, a voice had reminded her to keep taking care of herself, even though she felt like any remaining resistance she had was pulled away by an unseen force so strong nothing could stop it.

 _The trees look so peaceful,_ she thought idly. Her eyes drifted away from the scene and instead towards her phone where she'd left it out of arm's reach. There were several missed calls on the lock screen. Two from Reagan, three from Sam. There was even one from France. He'd probably heard about the situation from England.

She knew that staying here was of no use. Not to her, not to anyone. She couldn't wither away here forever. At some point, she'd have to set foot outside this room. She'd have to talk to people. She'd have to see faces that would remind her of everything she'd already lost, what she could still lose, what little was left. But if she really was a nation now, one way or another, they'd get her out of here. She'd have responsibilities to tend to, however little she wished to take care of them.

More importantly, she knew staying here meant letting her problems fester the way they had at her Uncle's. They would grow, a steadily worsening infection to poison her mind and her body until she gave up what fight she had left in her. Was she really meant to just waste away in the depths of her sorrows? Something told her, probably not.

But what did she have left? Her entire life, a poorly conducted play. Too many victims. Too much love lost… hope torn away. Every time hope crawled through the darkness, something came along to snuff the light out. Every time she let herself feel happy, she invited only more pain. That was the way her entire life had worked, hadn't it? Good childhood. Father, gone. New, happy school life. Mother, gone. Someone to take care of them still. Uncle, gone. Brother, gone. Then she'd been taken to live with her friends, and established new dreams, plans to rebuild her life and prove that she could still be something. She, who had lost everything, could still have anything. All of her dreams: gone.

What was left for her here but the confines of a role she was never meant to have? When she was just wreckage after a brutal storm that couldn't be salvaged, all of its parts equally useless by nature? She was not a whole person anymore. She was a broken arrangement of pieces that barely fit together. Her entire life, all the pain she'd endured… she'd thought for a while that perhaps it only meant to strengthen her, to show her how much she could handle and still come out alive. She'd wanted so much. To show her family, wherever they were, that she could make it on her own. She could live and dream and work and travel, like she'd always expected to do. She'd wanted to perhaps one day fall in love. She'd wanted to prove her Uncle's ruthless jabs wrong- she was not useless, she was not worthless, she was capable and beautiful and worthy of love and life.

Now, she knew, the only things she had were her few close friends and acquaintances. Nothing more. No dreams- she had her life planned out now. No family- they were buried a long time ago. No hope- any that she'd ever had was gone. Maybe she didn't want it ever again. And no home- no place to call her own, to go back to and find comfort in it. She was in a world she hadn't been born in. So many painful truths, despite the fact she was not completely alone. She felt so alone in her mind, in her heart… with her history. With failed potential. It wasn't just her dreams that had failed… she had failed. And perhaps, that was the greatest wound of all.

 _It's been five days,_ she thought to herself. _I can't stay up here forever… eventually, someone will come to get me, and I'll have to either accept this role or try to run away from it. There's nowhere to run, though._

And so, she knew, her only option was to leave this room and face her fate begrudgingly. It didn't matter that with every breath she took she felt more pain, or that with each step she felt herself walking away from who she might have been in a different life. None of it mattered anymore. And if it didn't matter, sitting here in self pity and sorrow wouldn't fix a damn thing. It was pointless. She'd finally fallen so low she'd hit the bottom. And in that moment, she decided it wasn't even worth her tears anymore and realized she was numb to anything else that could possibly happen now. There was nothing.

The girl got to her feet, picked up her tray, and made her way downstairs.

"Where do you want me to put this?"

They all stared at her as though she'd wandered in from nowhere. Like she was an apparition that had suddenly appeared before them, her light skin and hair glowing in the way a ghost might. Even Sweden looked surprised. She tried not to acknowledge the fact she'd basically hidden herself from them for just short of a week now.

"Just… on the counter is fine," Finland eventually replied, having slowly gotten to his feet. As she walked into the kitchen, he followed, and she could see by his expression he was dumbfounded and yet somehow overjoyed that she was standing there in that moment.

"Was it enough to eat? Do you want something else? How are you feeling?" he started flinging questions left and right, his concern bringing a gentle smile to her face. It felt like forever ago that she'd smiled.

"I'm fine, Fin," she reassured him, thanking him for the food he'd been bringing her the whole time. He told her not to dwell on it and ushered her back into the living room, where a convenient spot had been cleared on the couch beside Denmark, and which she gladly took to their further astonishment.

Rather than trying to talk about the fact she'd isolated herself for days, she simply rested her head on her hand and continued to watch shows with them, decidedly ignoring the looks she occasionally caught from them. Mostly Denmark, sometimes one of the others. She knew they wanted to say things and ask questions. But the tension in the room stopped them. So, she decided to ask a few questions of her own.

"I'm guessing Reagan called," she stated.

"Yeah, just earlier today," said Finland.

"Has England said anything yet?" she asked. They seemed to pause for a moment before realizing what she meant.

"Sometime soon he wants to have a smaller meeting," Iceland informed her. "To establish where to go from here."

She nodded, silently glad that at least she wouldn't be stuck with nothing for too long. At least she would have new tasks to distract her. Keep her busy.

"Maybe… you could give Reagan a call?" Finland suggested. "She's been wanting to talk to you."

The girl considered his words carefully before getting to her feet and nodding.

"Yeah… I probably should," she consented. "I'll be back in a bit."

With that, she turned and made her way back upstairs. Everyone remained quiet for several minutes following her departure. When they were relatively certain she'd gone back into her bedroom, Denmark was the first to speak.

"Is she… doing better?"

"I don't know… to suddenly show up like that," Iceland mumbled.

"Something feels off," Finland admitted.

No one wanted to point out the fact that while the girl had been speaking, there was no evidence of the timid stutter she'd once had. It had generally faded out when around them anyway, but after disruptive events it always returned for a short while. Her tone was steadier than usual, almost concrete in a way it hadn't been before. There was an edge there that shouldn't have been. Most importantly had been the effects of her gaze.

There was something empty there.

* * *

Corytha didn't call Reagan for the next hour. She contemplated what her friend may ask, how she may react… what would they even talk about, she wasn't sure. There was only one topic of interest. Though she supposed, at this point, she didn't care. Forcing herself to be calm as she had been downstairs, she dialed Reagan's number and put it on speaker, having seated herself in the corner of the room past her bed.

It rang once before it was answered.

"Hello?" a hopeful voice came through the speaker.

"Hey," Cori said, forcing a bit of emotion to her voice.

"Cori!" Reagan exclaimed.

On the other side of the phone, the strawberry blonde was beaming a mile wide. As soon as she'd recognized the number she'd retreated to her own room to talk to the friend who'd been lost to her for she could tell the girl was forcing herself to speak normally, she was still glad to hear her voice. For a while it had seemed as though she might never call.

"It's good to hear from you," she went on, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Sorry I didn't answer your calls before."

"Oh… that's fine. I can hear you now, that's all that matters," she replied with a soft laugh.

"Yeah… I guess."

"So, um… have you talked to the Nordics today?"

"I went downstairs about an hour ago for a little bit. Finland said I should call you."

"Ah, okay. I guess I did pester them a bit…"

After that statement, things fell awkwardly silent. Reagan bit her lip, hoping her friend would speak up first, but knew deep down that she might have to lead the conversation. There wasn't much to discuss; no use asking 'how have you been' when they both already knew the answer.

Finally she sighed.

"...Um… so… how are you taking it?" she asked gently, unable to think of anything else to ask.

"...It's happened," her friend replied in a haunting tone. "Nothing much to think at this point."

"Yeah… me and Sam are slowly coming to terms with it I guess," she admitted. "England wants to have a small meeting soon… it'll be us, the Axis, Allies and Nordics. It'll mostly just be an informative meeting though."

"Are we going to have to move?"

Reagan shrugged, though she quickly realized the motion did nothing to answer her friend's question and returned to speaking.

"I don't know," she sighed. "Maybe. Our nations are all next door though, so we might have the same house together I think. Or at least, we can if we want to."

"...Oh."

She bit her lip. _We need more things to talk about…_ she thought, worried the call might end too soon.

"Have you called your Grandma?" Corytha suddenly asked.

"Uh, yeah… yeah, I called her."

Truth be told, she'd called that night. She wanted to do it while she was in shock. It helped keep her voice in check as she delivered the news, and her grandmother had listened fully until the end before saying she'd find a way to tell her grandfather. When that call was out of the way, only then did she let her tears flow, and while England wasn't entirely sure how to handle it he still stayed with her until she was through.

"She took it fine… she said she'd tell my grandfather, and they'll sort things out with the house."

"That's good."

"Yep!"

Talking was painfully slow at this point. Corytha knew there wasn't much to discuss. To call Reagan had been more for her friend's reassurance that she was still breathing- nothing else.

If she stayed on the phone like this much longer the pain she felt trying to maintain this conversation would become tangible.

"Well, um… if nothing else has happened, I think I'll just go watch shows with the Nordics for a while," she finally stated, her tone devoid of even sorrow at this point. She was sure her friend could sense the desolation. In her subconscious, she wasn't sure she cared.

"Oh, okay- yeah! Yeah, definitely go hang out with them. I'm just glad you checked in," Reagan said in a forcefully cheerful tone.

"No problem. Do you know when we're supposed to talk to England?" Corytha asked, knowing the next step would be to have the small meeting that would explain their new future to them.

"I think the current plan is to have us over to his house in about three days or so? Him, Germany, Japan, France and Italy will all be there. I guess Prussia and the Nordics are involved as well, but that's all. I think we'll keep living where we currently are for now though, until things settle down."

"Okay. Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem! If you have any other questions just ask," her friend replied promptly.

"Alright. Well, I'll talk to you later."

"Bye Cori!"

"Bye, Rae."

After hanging up, Corytha set her phone carefully on the dresser. Seated on her bed, she stared for a long moment at the darkened screen.

 _Guess this is it,_ she thought. _Only option left is the one right in front of me._

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts away, the girl did as she'd said she would, walking downstairs back to her spot on the couch. If her company was surprised at her reappearance, they didn't say a word about it.

Over the next few days the blonde forced herself to leave her room and even tried starting up conversations every now and again. The emptiness of her eyes never failed to astonish them, but they didn't ask questions, either. Things were too delicate for such prodding right now- at least that's what Sweden had asserted the night before, when she'd left to talk to Reagan. None of them wanted to risk pushing her away.

Denmark tried his best to keep her busy, showing her random things he probably already had and putting in a movie or two, and pulling her outside for her first walk in a while. She ate with them again for meals, and though the signs of restlessness were still obvious, she seemed to be sleeping better if only by the energy she had regained for the day. Her resting demeanor of shy cheerfulness was replaced by a dull and neutral expression- Denmark tried to take it as a challenge to make her laugh, which he succeeded in a few times. They knew the girl they had come to care for was still in there. She was just buried beneath new layers of fear and loss.

* * *

On the third day, as planned, the group made their way to England's for the meeting.

The girl's friends weren't sure what to make of her when she walked in that day with a forced smile and mechanically returned their hugs. Her enthusiasm had vanished, replaced with something cold and careless. Everyone noticed it right away, but even Italy had the sense not to point it out.

When greetings had been exchanged, everyone took seats around a table in England's smaller meeting room. Snacks, likely of Reagan's making, were set up on a smaller table nearby, along with a small dispenser for both water and lemonade. It seemed that Germany, Italy and Prussia had already been here for a while to discuss details before the others arrived.

"Now then," England said, clearing his throat as he got to his feet. "I suppose we ought to get this thing started."

He glanced to Reagan, who offered him an encouraging smile and brief nod.

"First, I… I wanted to apologize again to the three of you for everything that has happened," he said. He forced himself not to avert his eyes from Sam's somewhat scrutinizing gaze or Corytha's moment of rigid indifference to his words. "It's an unfortunate turn of events, but I assure you we will do everything in our power to make this transition smooth and successful for the three of you. Your countries are smaller, and they're all right next to one another, so we can arrange for all of you to live under the same roof if you'd like, as a start."

"That would be nice," Sam said, folding her arms across her chest. Her irritation had faded. With progressive encouragement from Prussia and Germany, the redhead had calmed her temper and was no longer as angry about it all, though it would still take some getting used to.

"We've also contacted your leaders and informed them that the three of you will be around in the next few weeks, but they're handling everything right now until you feel up to taking over some tasks. All of the important paperwork and such are in their hands anyway, so you won't have to worry about rules and regulations or anything like that. You're more of a figurehead that will stand for the country and assist in making decisions."

Reagan nodded to show she was listening. Across from Corytha, France was eying her with concern, noting how she seemed to hardly be paying attention. Every once in a while she would glance over to England as he spoke, but for the most part, she leaned forward with her chin propped up on one hand and gazed down at the table blankly.

"Being a county, you will be around as long as your country is around. That is, for a very long time," Germany was saying sometime later. "You will also heal from physical injuries quicker. But if things are going awry within your country, you will feel some of that unrest within yourself. Kind of like an illness."

Sam raised her hand.

"Ja?"

"Since we _were_ humans, do you think we'll have a hard time with any of the things we have to do? Or like… will it interfere with anything?"

"Hmm…" everyone stopped to consider this for a moment. Corytha, in her mind, corrected that statement to 'since we _are_ humans.' "It is possible… you've experienced more in terms of daily life and possibly family, too. Time might seem to fly by. If anything, your human sentiments might cause some things to be sad. But it just as easily could help you in connecting with your people and making better decisions than even some of us are capable of as countries."

Satisfied, the redhead just nodded and fell silent.

"Um… I have a question," Reagan stated. Germany nodded towards her.

"So… all three of our countries are small," she said slowly. "Does that mean we don't have much by way of military?"

"Yes, that's true," Germany said. "You would have to build it up a bit more, though your leaders can probably handle that on their own."

Reagan swallowed a bit then continued with the more important question she had. "How likely is it that we'll be attacked anytime soon…?"

England gave her a slightly surprised look. "I doubt anytime soon, if at all," he said without hesitation. "Fights aren't really as common these days, and since you're still new and you've made good impressions on most of the world powers, it's not as if anyone would have a reason to attack you."

"You and I both know people don't exactly _need_ a reason to be stupid," Sam said, raising a sly eyebrow.

"England is right," Germany said. "It wouldn't make sense for anyone to attack your countries, especially now of all times. Keep your defenses up, of course, but I wouldn't worry about that right now if I were in your position."

"Right, and besides, several of us have already publicly claimed to be your allies," England said with a somewhat triumphant smile. "Meaning if anyone does decide to attack you, they'll have to mess with us, as well."

Reagan laughed a bit, though her spirits were lifted by their words.

"Alright, I guess that's good, then."

"Can we still have lives of our own?" Sam asked.

"Of course you can! It's not like all of us stay locked up in a room all day, do we?"

After several more questions, the meeting was considered finished. Over the next couple of weeks, a house would be picked for the girls to live in, and they would need to meet with their leaders to learn about who they were working with and the cultures of their countries. It would happen gradually so they had time to adjust to their new lives and figure out the new dynamic that would exist between the three of them as countries. Of course, it was assumed that the three would be allies to one another, so that would be the first treaty they established.

* * *

As things were wrapping up, Finland approached England near the corner of the meeting room with the rest of the Nordics. Corytha was helping Reagan to clean up and had disappeared into the kitchen with Sam.

"England, can we talk with you for a moment?"

"Hm? Oh, sure Finland. What is it?" he said, turning to face them all.

"We have a request to make," Denmark announced. Sweden glared at him and he grinned sheepishly, checking around to make sure no one else had overheard.

"A… request?"

Germany walked over alongside Reagan, joining the conversation.

"Yeah, you see," Finland glanced towards the others, understanding passing between them all. "All of us have been thinking for the last few days, and well… we know you were planning on having the girls live together and all, but…"

He sighed, wondering if England and Germany would even allow for their request. It wasn't a typical arrangement between countries that weren't located near one another.

"It wouldn't feel quite like home without her in it anymore," Sweden suddenly took over. Shocked, Reagan's mouth opened a bit. Germany and England stared on.

"Yeah!" Denmark jumped in quickly. "It's too much fun having Cor around; she needs us!"

"We want her to stay," Norway chimed in last.

The others exchanged somewhat curious looks, though not doubtful.

"Well, I… I don't know," England began to reply. "She'll have responsibilities to take care of… and she might like to live with her friends after all of this."

"But we are her friends!" Denmark whined.

"No, you're not," Reagan said softly. Everyone froze and turned to look at her in confusion.

"You're not just her friends," she clarified, giving them a gentle smile. "You're like family to her, even if she doesn't quite realize it yet."

"Really?" Finland asked hopefully.

"Yeah," she laughed. "I can tell just by the way she talks about spending time with you guys. She said it's like having a bunch of older brothers… not to mention she's opened up to you about so much. She trusts you. Even if she's not herself right now, I think… I really think her staying with you could be good for her."

"Reagan, you really believe that?" England asked her.

She turned to him and nodded.

"I do. And she can still take care of decisions from their house, with calls and stuff, I'm sure… or me and Sam could help her out and relay messages. I know it's probably not what you'd consider ideal, but… she needs time to heal from this. And I think if anyone has a chance at helping her feel at peace, I think it's them. They were already starting to help her so much before this happened. They might be her only chance… I don't want my friend to fall apart again."

Germany and England weighed their words heavily. They glanced towards the kitchen, where Corytha was being held up by France in a conversation. Something he'd said had just made her crack a faint smile- an echo of what she'd been before the crushing news. An echo of the girl she should have been.

"...Well, I'm alright with it," England said, his expression softening a bit. 'If it will help her come back from wherever she is right now."

"Ja, I'm fine with it too," Germany said, surprising everyone. "But if things start lagging behind in her country, she will have to find some other way to make sure her work gets done."

"Understandable," Reagan said, unable to suppress her grin.

Denmark lit up with excitement soon afterwards, so Norway dragged him off to one side where he could eventually contain himself. The other Nordics set to figuring out how they could help the girl return to her former self, possibly even better than before. She deserved as much after everything she'd been through.


	19. Chapter 19- Starting Over

As suggested by Finland, no one told Corytha about the arrangement for her to stay with the Nordics. As far as the despondent blonde was concerned, in three weeks time she would be moving in with her friends in a larger home to begin preparations for their new roles as countries. The plan was to try and console her before surprising her, to make things even better, although not everyone was convinced it would go quite as expected.

On one hand, the girl may not bounce back from things and remain stuck in the dark, unwilling to come back again. If she stayed there, it wouldn't matter whether she stayed or left. Nothing would change, and she would be unhappy at her core. Or, perhaps, if she did manage to return to her old self- who could say she wouldn't want to move in with her friends right away?

But, for the most part, they were determined to make it work. Denmark in particular became set on the idea, and nothing for all the world could sway his decision. For to him, ever since Corytha had told him he was like an older brother, he'd come to truly see things that way. She was his little sister. He would go through hell and back again to keep her protected. She needed family right now, and family is what he would give to her. Family is where he would bring her home.

They all worked on getting her to talk more around the household. By asking questions, the girl couldn't refrain from answering, so she spoke more often than she had probably wanted to. Finland and Denmark were the most insistent of the group, though the others all did their part. Sweden even had her helping him put things together or organize around the house at other times. Overall, the first week, progress was slow. It seemed she'd hit rock bottom so deeply that no matter what she did or how much she spoke, some internal sense of loss kept her in a dark room. Though she laughed lightly at jokes or smiled every now and then, there was an emptiness there that wouldn't seem to fade. Denmark hated it the most, though they were all concerned.

Reagan checked in from time to time to see if any improvements were made, and usually, the news was the same.

Finland didn't let it get to his spirits. Disheartening as it was, while Denmark became impatient and agitated, the Finnish man hoped that by maintaining a good attitude, Corytha would eventually want to open up the way she had before. Seeing others being in a good mood could perhaps make her wish she could feel the same again, and from there it would be easy to try and turn her thoughts around. So, he went about his day, talking to her at every opportunity he had and trying to act as though he didn't notice the sorrow she radiated, although at times he couldn't help but offer his sympathy when she seemed to fade from the present moment. Iceland followed this approach to the best of his ability.

Then, finally, an idea from Sweden set something new in motion.

The following Tuesday while lounging around the living room, Corytha was sketching when Finland walked in with a small stack of paper and pencils.

"Hey guys, I read something interesting and thought maybe we should give it a try!" he claimed, setting the materials down on the table. He exchanged glances with Sweden, who as usual was a master with neutral expressions.

"Eh? What is it, Tino?" Denmark feigned confusion. Although, as far as Norway was concerned, it might not have been fake.

"There's this exercise where everyone designs their dream room! Then when everyone draws it, we share them with each other. It's supposed to tell everyone more about who you are as a person. I thought it would be fun," Tino smiled, sitting down on the carpet. Corytha glanced up from her work with a look of curiosity. This wasn't something she would have anticipated, but she supposed it wasn't entirely out of place, either.

"Oh! Cool, why not?" Denmark beamed, scooting to the edge of the couch. He took a piece of paper for himself and a pencil then looked at the others. "C'mon guys, everyone's doing it!"

"I'm not doing this," Iceland mumbled, folding his arms over his chest. Norway picked up two pieces of paper and dropped one on Iceland's head.

"Yes, you are," he stated.

"Why are you like this?"

Sweden set down what he was reading and without a word picked a piece of paper for himself. Finally, Finland smiled and handed one to Corytha.

"You should do it too, Corytha!"

"I'm not sure I-"

"Hey, if even Emil is doing it, you can do it too!" Denmark teased.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Well, what are the parameters?" she asked, begrudgingly preparing to draw on the new paper. "Like… realistic room, I'm guessing?"

"Yep! Entirely realistic, but with anything you want! No limits," Finland explained. He opened a container he'd brought in filled with colored pencils.

It took the girl a few moments to even begin sketching a layout for the room. It was strange to glance around and see everyone at work, although Denmark seemed quite occupied with his tongue sticking out of his mouth. How intense.

 _This is random, but… I guess I'll play along,_ she finally thought, glancing towards the ceiling. What would she want in her dream room? In a perfect world…

By the time she was finished, she felt something stir in her chest from the piece she'd created. It was different from what she'd been sketching lately- even more so since she'd used color as well. Everyone else wrapped up their own drawings. Then, without a moment's hesitation, Finland sat up straight and held up his paper.

"Are we ready to share?"

"This feels ridiculous," Iceland commented, giving a death glare to his own paper.

"Ahaha, don't be so stubborn, Ice!" Denmark laughed as he put his pencils back into the box. Corytha hated to admit it, but she was with Iceland on this one. What was the point of this exercise? How was it supposed to tell anyone a thing about the maker? Well… maybe that part was obvious, but it was such an odd activity anyway. Random, in the least.

"So who's going to start?"

"Not me…"

"I'll go!"

And so, Denmark started the discussion with his own room. Most of it already looked like his bedroom, but he'd thrown in some new objects and redecorated much of the walls.

He rambled on about strategic placing of items, although everyone was aware he was probably just talking to hear his own voice at this point. Joking aside, when he was finished, they went around the makeshift circle until Finland went. And, finally, it was Corytha's turn.

She grimaced when all eyes turned on her.

"Alright Cor, your turn!" Denmark grinned.

The blonde glanced to her page in disinterest but eventually turned it around so they could see what she'd drawn. It was a sort of cross-section with various views, the closest she could get to accurately drawing a room.

"Um… well," she hesitantly began, "This is… the best I could think of."

"Oh, wow!" Finland said, holding his hands together as he looked at it. "I like the color of the walls!"

Corytha offered him a simple smile.

"Is that a map?" Iceland asked.

The girl glanced to her drawing and nodded. She began to describe what she'd put into the room.

The walls were a cool teal paired with a dark wooden floor. She had organized it similar to the room she was currently staying in- it technically was her bedroom for now, as far as she was concerned. The bed had silver sheets and nice fluffy pillows. Behind the bed, a motivational poster of some kind. There was a desk with a laptop on it where she could type or research and a stack of journals lined up on the shelf, and a black swivel chair. In the other corner, a tall shelf full of books. The world map was behind her artist desk on the wall opposite to her bed with pins in it from where she'd been. Beside the desk were several blank canvases for later use. The same drawers where she currently kept her clothes was in the same place, repainted a darker brown and sitting beside the closet in the wall. There were photo frames on top of it alongside a flowering plant. Another plant sat on the windowsill. Finally, on the ceiling, she made vague sketches of stars and constellations. A more idealistic addition, but it would still be neat, she supposed.

By the time she was done, she glanced up and found them all peering at her drawing, particularly Sweden. She cleared her throat and set it down on the table where the rest of them had done the same.

"Anyway, that's about it," she said.

"That's brilliant!" Denmark exclaimed.

The girl laughed quietly. "Thanks?"

"Really though, it's an awesome design," Finland commented, exchanging a quick glance with Sweden. There was a near-imperceptible nod that Corytha failed to notice.

She shrugged but said nothing more on the subject.

Finland collected all the papers and the container before leaving the room to put them upstairs. When he left, Corytha glanced towards the others only to find they had already returned to whatever they were doing prior to the random intervention.

 _That was… odd,_ she thought. Then she shook her head. _I shouldn't question these things at this point, really._

So, she took up her sketchpad and went back to work without delay.

* * *

One night Corytha was busy flipping through papers when a knock sounded on her door. It had been two days since the strange room-design event, which the girl had mostly forgotten about already. Things remained the same as they had been, though for some reason it seemed Denmark was growing more and more eager to get her out of the house to go on random day trips and walks. One part of her wanted to appreciate his effort- another part wanted him to just leave her alone, though she would never be able to say that to his face.

"Come in," she said absentmindedly, sitting up taller on her bed.

The door opened quietly. Glancing over, she watched as Norway walked over, steaming mug in hand, and set it upon the dresser.

"Berwald wanted me to bring this," he explained.

She blinked slowly. "Oh… well, um, could you thank him for me when you go back down?"

"I wasn't planning on going back down until later," he commented more to himself than in response to her question.

"Oh. Ah, I'll take care of it then. But thanks for bringing it," she said, turning her attention back to the papers.

Norway paused, his neutral gaze lingering on the papers in her hands.

"What are those?" he asked.

"...Some light reading material," she mumbled half-heartedly. Instantly, the Norwegian stepped closer and peered at the words just before she went to move them away.

"Are those-"

"It's just a bit of research," she injected, awkwardly trying to align the stack in her hands. Norway reached out and swiped them before she could object.

"Lukas-"

"This is your country."

"Evidently, yes, it is-"

"You aren't supposed to be worrying about this sort of thing for another two weeks," he said firmly, keeping the papers out of her reach.

Corytha heaved a sigh and got to her feet, her expression changing for once from drained to exasperated.

"Look, I know Germany told us to just… 'soak things in' whatever that means," she said, using quotations with her fingers for emphasis, "But I don't see the point of sitting around and delaying the inevitable. I might as well start now, it's not like I'm busy with anything else."

"Technically you are," Norway countered.

She stared at him in confusion.

"You aren't in the right place to be doing this yet… he told you and your friends to wait so you could settle in before starting this work. You haven't healed."

At this, to his surprise, she actually cracked a disbelieving smile. A smile that spread across her face against her better judgement and made her look amused yet dumbfounded. It was an expression he'd never seen her wear before.

"Healed?" she said. In the back of her mind a small voice warned her not to lose herself in this conversation. She wasn't feeling like herself. "As if any amount of time is going to fix this? I'm not busy healing. There's nothing left to heal! I'm not going to just sit around here and spend the next week waiting to start this stupid role!"

"This 'stupid role' is one all of us have had from the beginning of our lives. And it hasn't prevented us from having fulfilled lives of our own," Norway said calmly, meeting her gaze. The girl felt something in her chest tighten briefly as she looked away.

"I… I'm sorry," she murmured, feeling bad for raising her voice like that. "But regardless… give it one week, two weeks… three weeks, a month, it won't matter. I'll still be here."

"Is being here really the worst fate to have?" he asked.

"It's not about it being the worst thing," she sighed, running a hand through her hair. He watched as she seemed to finally be coming out of the shell she'd been enclosed in for a long time now- as the carefully placed mask of emotionlessness came crumbling down. "Just… forget it. Keep the papers. I won't look anything else up if it's really a problem for everyone else."

Gently, Norway set the stack down on her dresser and maintained silence for several minutes. It took him a while to figure out where to take the conversation. But he knew it wouldn't end here- and unlike Finland, he wouldn't be avoiding the subject until she came around.

"...It's not a problem for everyone else," he suddenly spoke up. "The only one who is having a problem is you."

"...Pardon?"

"The idea for not looking into these things yet was to take a step back and let the reality sink in until you felt ready to handle it, because it's a big job to be presented with so suddenly. Germany is not unaware of this fact, even as commanding as he is. But rather than coming from a place of acceptance as your friends will be soon, you are now operating from a place of resignation. You can't simply begin this task when you have no will to actually be doing the work."

Corytha's eyes narrowed.

"Will to work?" she repeated. "Why would I ever have the will to work towards something that I didn't ask for? Acceptance or not, I didn't sign up for this. So if the job needs to be done then fine- I'll do it. But it doesn't mean I'll be happy about it. And why should I be?"

"Why shouldn't you be?" he countered.

Something akin to anger finally awakened in the girl as he said this. He was challenging her more than anyone ever had during her entire stay here. She would have expected this perhaps out of Germany, or England, or even Denmark since he'd seemed to antsy lately- but not Norway. Never the calm man who barely spoke on a regular day.

"Why shouldn't I be happy about this whole thing?" she said slowly. She forced herself to look him in the eyes, trying to search for some hint that he wasn't serious about what he'd said. As always, he was unreadable. "How about the fact my entire life was stolen from me? And now I'm expected to just let that go?"

"There's nothing else you can do. For some, that's the only logical choice."

"Well let me tell you a thing about logic," she said in a tired voice. "My life has hardly had any logic in it since my childhood. So if you think logic will start being a part of it now, you're mistaken."

She tore her gaze away and glared towards the floor. She hated having this conversation. Hated having any feelings stirred up in her about this situation at all. Especially after she'd decided to let herself deal with it weeks ago, the first moment she'd sunk into her despondent reality.

"There is nothing else… there is nothing left," she muttered.

 _She's close,_ Norway thought as he observed her words and her actions. He hadn't thought it would be so easy to spur her into reaction, but of course she never was good at hiding her true feelings. No matter what mask of indifference she showed to the world, even the emptiness of her eyes was a cover. An illusion to the pain she was trying to ignore and forget, because she no longer wanted to feel it. But until she dealt with the pain, there would be no healing. He'd come to this conclusion over the last few days while the others continued to find their own ways of testing her- Denmark with his constant nudging, Finland with his attempts at normalcy, Sweden having her help around the house. All of it was to try and convince her to open up. Not him.

Somehow, he knew the only thing that would work- at least faster than the alternatives- would be getting to the root of the problem. And that meant pushing her until she finally broke.

"There is always something," he prompted. "You just have to choose to see it."

"Lukas… there is nothing. Left," she insisted. "Just… forget this conversation, okay? I'm tired."

"You do not have nothing, Corytha."

"I get it, okay?" She said, gesturing with her hands. "I still have Reagan and Sam, I still have you guys and this room for now and support from a few other people. I get it! No. I don't have nothing. But as for the worth of my life and everything in it, it's worth nothing, Lukas. I don't stand for anything and I come from nothing. It's empty- it's _lost._ You can't just find something in the abyss!"

"Then maybe you need to look elsewhere."

The girl groaned and turned to one side as if to walk away, but he had her cornered on one side of her bed, so she couldn't move without walking past him. Instead she just became more agitated and closed her eyes, not understanding why he had to keep pushing it like this.

"Please, Norway," she said in the steadiest voice she could muster. "Leave it alone."

"..."

It had been a while since she'd explicitly used his country name. She usually referred to them by their human names, but even though it didn't technically matter to them, their human names were more endearing to her than the other option. It made them more human, more relatable. Using his country name was the equivalent of trying to draw a line between the two of them. A line that should not be crossed.

"Standing there, trying to get me to be okay with this… I'm sorry, but I can't just do that anymore. Some of the most important things I've ever had in my life are all gone. Being stuck here? My entire world is gone. And my dreams are gone. So if you want to tell me to just get over it, then fine, but I'm telling you now, that's probably the worst thing you could say."

Sensing that she would start talking more, Norway stepped over that invisible line and continued.

"I'm not here to tell you to get over it," he said simply. "I'm trying to tell you to move on to something different. That's what all of us have been trying to get you to do."

She glanced in his general direction but stayed silent.

"I know you've noticed Denmark's behavior. He's worried about you. We all are. You're the only one who can choose to make your life better, so everyone else has been trying to wait it out and see what you decide. But unlike them I don't think you'd make that choice unless confronted with reality. Which is why I'm here."

Taken aback, the blonde backed up and slowly looked at his face. Though unreadable, there was a silence, unyielding presence behind those eyes. She knew he wouldn't be backing down. Whatever source of inner determination he had, it was solid, and she wasn't sure what to do about it. Her mind was beginning to draw blanks from it all.

"Reality is that me and my friends are now stuck here doing a job we didn't ask for while the lives of their loved ones will now go on without them in a world we can never return to," she said evenly, trying to maintain some sense of control over herself. She was shaking now, her old insecurities and nervous habits threatening to break through to the surface.

"No. The reality is that your friends are gradually going to move on and try embracing their new lives, while you stay here, riddled with loss and sadness and despair. And you will watch the world around you with fading eyes until there truly is nothing left but emptiness even with your friends in your life because you don't bother trying to see it any other way."

Her expression grew wounded, pain like a twisting knife stabbing her in the chest at his words. How could he say such a thing?

"How could I see it any other way?" she said, anger momentarily replaced with sorrow. "I had dreams for a future back in that world, Lukas… I was supposed to go to college and get a degree. I was supposed to get a job and one day my own house, my own life. I was _supposed_ to finally grow up and prove that I can actually accomplish things in my life! That I'm not just some waste of space who can't do anything for herself! I was supposed to _live!_ "

By now, she had snapped, voice steadily rising as water pricked at the corners of her eyes. She didn't care that her voice was shaky or that her emotions had just come back full force- couldn't he understand why she couldn't be happy here anymore?

"I was supposed to make something of myself and prove to my stupid Uncle that I am _not_ worthless!" she choked out, eyes narrowed and blurring her vision. "And now, I'm here. And yes, I have Sam and Reagan, and sure you say I'm supported by the other countries… but none of that matters! I am _here._ Not on Earth, not going to college. All the things I was finally starting to work for- _gone._ All the dreams I finally had after years of abuse- _gone. Every single memory_ I _ever_ made- not here. My entire life has been on another planet, in another Universe, that is now untouchable. And everything I ever went through- divorce, death, abuse, more death- _all_ of that is _pointless_ now! Being here, it's as if none of that ever even happened, but it did! My family is _gone,_ and you think I can just get up and walk away from that? As if I can just accept the fact my entire existence up until this point has suddenly become _meaningless?"_

Norway remained still as the grave as he listened to her growing crescendo of revealing thoughts and feelings she'd buried alive for so long. And now that they were brought into the light, he could finally see her for who she truly was- a damaged teenage girl with nothing but regrets about her past.

"Everything I went through… everything I had to deal with," she sobbed lightly, clenching her hands tightly at her sides. "All of that means nothing, now… so then why? Why did it have to happen at all? Why, if I was going to end up here, did I have to go through any of it? _Why?"_

Hearing the break in her voice, he could tell she was on the verge of losing it.

"Why did I have to go and lose everyone? Why did I have to have knives carving trails into my skin? Why did I have to lose my home and my childhood and my only dreams? _Why?"_

"Corytha-"

" _Tell me why, damn it!"_ she shouted, stumbling backwards into the wall as forceful sobs wrenched themselves free of her lungs. She slowly slumped to the floor, not even caring anymore what he may think of her display. She couldn't hold it in anymore. She was too tired to fight it, too tired to bother hiding it away again. She'd never thought it would come to this- but here she was, broken, vulnerable, and crying.

Minutes passed as the girl emptied herself of the tears she thought she'd run out of a while back. The outside world disappeared, alongside Norway, and the anger and the fear and the resentment and the regret. All that was left was the pain and sorrow- the root of it all. It was like she'd gone and stumbled back into therapy, when she'd felt like this once before about her future that had seemed so bleak. She'd found a goal to move towards- but in this moment, that goal was completely lost. She was back to square one, back in the hole she'd tried so hard to stay out of. Where would she go from here if not towards the success she'd craved for months? Her Uncle would be right all along- she couldn't do anything. She would remain without worth… and her parents would never see her get into a career and live her life as an independent young woman. All of this was taken from her.

Thoughts spinning, her senses slowly began to return to her. Her breakdown had rendered her curled up on the floor with her back to the wall. When her sobs subsided, she felt aware of being watched and warily glanced up. Except Norway wasn't the only one there to see her pitiful despair. All of the Nordics were there.

Forcing her mouth to close after her initial shock, the girl stared at them until it became too much to bear. Her gaze fell to her feet. Her eyes began to dry out, though her throat remained sore. She wanted to say something- anything- but nothing came to mind. Eventually she found the will to force something past her trembling lips.

"...I'm sorry," she breathed, pressing a hand to the side of her face.

"Cor-"

"I'm sorry for shutting everyone out… I just… didn't know what else to do-"

"Corytha."

She froze upon the sternness of Denmark's tone. If ever there was a time she was terrified to be sitting here, it was now.

"Stop apologizing to everyone else," he said. Her pulse, which had been rather finicky up until this point, evened out then began to slow. "The person you need to apologize to is yourself."

Confused, the girl wiped at the wetness on her cheeks and cast a glance towards the bed to her left.

"But I-"

"No buts," he cut in. "You don't need to go beating yourself up for your actions when you already feel bad enough…"

"..." the girl stayed quiet, uncertain of what to do or say. Had they all been standing outside the door the entire time? How much had they heard? Or had they merely heard her when she yelled and broke down?

"Why is it so important that you go to college and get a job?" Finland asked cautiously, taking a few steps closer to her. Like herself, they probably weren't sure how to react right now, either.

"I just wanted to make them proud," she sniffed, lowering her gaze further. The crack in her voice nearly made his heart break.

"Well couldn't you do that here?" he said, sitting next to her now. The others slightly relaxed, now that the anger had subsided. In this case it was the calm after the storm.

"I-I… I don't see how," she whispered. "And wh-what if they aren't even here? If an afterlife even existed, how could they follow me here?"

"Isn't that a bit too deep of a question to have the answer to?" Iceland asked. Corytha merely shrugged and closed her eyes.

"Regardless, your family wouldn't want to see you upset like this," Finland reasoned, placing a hand on her shoulder. "They would want you to be happy! You have nothing to prove to them. No matter what you do with your life, if you're doing well, they'd be rooting for you."

"Yeah!" Denmark moved over and sat down on her other side, throwing an arm across her shoulders. "You're a part of the family- there's nothing you should have to prove to them. Not to anyone, except yourself, maybe. But you're the only one you should care about for that sort of thing." He grew serious for a moment, his grip tightening around her. "Especially not your Uncle. You are way past deserving better things than that!"

"Maybe taking on this new job and learning some new skills would be a great chance for you to improve yourself," Finland offered. "It might not be what you wanted, but it doesn't have to be the worst thing, if you look at it the right way. It could be a unique opportunity!"

"You have more worth than you know," Sweden added in.

Hearing all of their words gradually eased the roaring in her head, though her entire body still felt sore. She could faintly hear the words her therapist had once taught her, as well as her friends from a long time ago. Or at least it felt like forever since she'd heard it- yet it wasn't longer than two years since. Perhaps at some point she'd just forgotten, or maybe her situation had caused her to not dwell on the subject. Either way, the girl finally realized she still had healing to do. Lots of it. But for the time being, she shouldn't banish it just because she was tired of feeling weak.

Sniffing once more, she shifted awkwardly and released a breath.

"...Can I…. think, for a little bit?" she finally said.

In unspoken agreement they began to leave the room, allowing Corytha a chance to regroup after everything that had just transpired. Norway was the last to head for the door, but before he left, he paused in the doorway.

Then he seemed to think of something and turned back, walking straight up to the girl who had finally gotten back to her feet. Her mouth opened to speak, but her words were silenced as he pulled her into light hug. Her eye's widened to their fullest extent, arms hanging limp at her sides in shock from the gesture. It was the first time he had done any such thing.

"Your experiences are never worthless," he said. "Everything you went through has given you lessons to learn and choices to make… choices that make you who you are. It's never too late to change those choices, either. There is only moving forward… no more going back."

"..."

"And for the record, you've already proven yourself to be one of the strongest people I've ever met," he added. Then, without another word, he turned and left the room. Corytha, stunned, remained standing on the spot.

A little while later she found herself seated on the edge of her bed facing the window. There was a light rain falling outside, followed by patches of sunlight through the clouds. It was a strange combination of weather, but she found peace in studying it and the way they both flowed together.

They were right.

Everyone had been right. And maybe some part of her had always known that.

Truth was, after her Uncle's abuse, she no longer believed she deserved anything better. She'd lost enough to feel like that was all she could do- lose. She would never win with that mindset, no matter how powerless she'd felt before. Her therapist and friends had always told her she deserved better, and that she was capable of doing great things with her life. Rather than taking this advice for the right reasons, instead, she'd decided her worth would be determined by superficial success- by creating an image to put her Uncle's insults to shame. But in the end, that wasn't what they'd meant. She needed to move forward and pursue her passions and become strong not for revenge at her Uncle- but for herself. She needed to change her opinion of herself and continue despite her Uncle's tauntings. Those were _his_ beliefs, not hers. They had become hers. But they didn't have to stay that way.

No, she wasn't happy that she wouldn't be able to experience college like normal girls. Still, being here was something out of a story. Her dreams of traveling were already a very real possibility, and being a country meant she already had a career she could work on without even having a degree. She could have responsibilities that no one else experienced in their regular lives. In a way, representing a nation? A far bigger accomplishment than her Uncle would ever deserve to know. And her parents would be proud, wouldn't they?

They were right. Her family would want her to be happy, wherever they were. Here or not, her mother had always told her to follow her heart. She couldn't let herself stay broken forever. That wouldn't honor her mother's memory. She'd been through rough times, sure enough. But here she was, still alive and in one piece, with friends who refused to give up on her. And perhaps that would always be her greatest success in life thus far. And if that were the case, then she'd already proven herself worthy of many things.

Sighing slowly through her mouth, Corytha closed her eyes and allowed the warmth of the sunlight through the window to reach her skin.

 _I haven't handled this well so far,_ she thought, _but it's like Denmark said… I can't beat myself up for it. That's how I learned to react after a rough time. But those times are over. I have healing to do, and only showing myself compassion will allow me to be happy… and I deserve to be happy. My family would want that… and I want it, too. There's more than one way to be successful. I don't need some degree and a fancy house to prove that. In the end, the strength of my character should be more important… shouldn't it?_

Eventually she opened her eyes and stayed still in the silence, soaking everything in. The calm atmosphere, the rhythmic ticking of the clock in the background, and nature outside. All of it was here in this moment. Everything was right where it should be.

And perhaps, so was she.

About an hour later, when all the Nordics were gathered downstairs in the living room, Corytha left her room- sketchbook in hand- and walked downstairs. Denmark lowered the volume of the TV as everyone turned their attention to her. She paused, looking between the people who had done so much for her over the last few weeks. They'd accepted her as a friend into their home, took her on adventures and continued to appreciate her even after she'd admitted her history. And now they were still here, still hoping she could carry on, still ready to help her if she needed it. She was done running away.

The blonde shyly smiled, the light having returned to her eyes, albeit a small one for now. It was all they needed. Denmark beamed and patted the seat next to him, and she laughed, promptly sitting down beside him as he turned up the volume on the show and began to talk rapidly about what she'd missed so far that episode. She opened her sketch pad and began to draw a loose portrait of her mother from what she could remember.

The details gradually filled themselves in until what she had was both a reflection of fond memories of someone who had loved her dearly, and a mirror to what kind of person she wanted to become.


	20. Chapter 20- Home To Stay

Though it wasn't a transformation overnight, Corytha returned much to her old self over the next few days. She no longer hid out in her room and began to talk more on her own accord, every now and then even asking a hesitant question about the life of a country. Even then, they tried to not linger on the questions long, believing she still needed to settle before taking on her new role too soon. She called Reagan and Sam one night to make amends for her behavior and received much the same reaction as she had from the Nordics. She called France, too, for extra measure.

She started her morning walks with Iceland again, who started talking to her a bit more in the process. The afternoons were sometimes filled with hot chocolate or coffee while reading with Sweden as she used to, though he checked in with her every now and again on how she was feeling. Denmark did the same in a less discrete manner, sometimes even popping into her bedroom to make sure she was still okay- she started laughing the more he did it, and so he continued to do so. Finland talked to her often and had a new dessert for her to try every few days to the blonde's delight.

The greatest change, however, was Norway's behavior towards her. He was still generally quiet throughout the day, aside from the occasional funny conversation between him and Iceland or quarrels with Denmark. But in the evenings when Corytha returned to her room, he started checking in with her on a nightly basis. At first it seemed neither of them were sure what to do when he showed up, but figuring his motives, Corytha usually tried to talk about something that had made her happy that day. He sat there attentively to listen. When conversation dwindled, he would usually wish her a good night's rest and dismiss himself. Recently he started leaving a wisp or two in her room, so when she turned off the lights and saw the blue orbs, she felt as if she had been blessed with magic. In a way, she had. They floated up when she raised her palm to them as if they had a life of their own. Eventually, while she slept, they faded out.

It was about five days until the girls had been scheduled to meet with their leaders. While they were technically one nation split into three parts, each part had its own way of doing things, not surprising given the girls' dynamic as friends. Reagan was idealistic and more of a peacemaker towards the outside world while Sam was a little more defensive and firm in her stance, albeit a bit of a risk-taker as well. Though Corytha leaned towards Reagan's optimistic ways, she had her own tranquil nature and often acted as the mediator between the two sides. She kept both sides stable.

Even so, the blonde began to really look around the room one day as she realized she would be moving out in less than a week. Already she had a suitcase open along the far wall packed with some clothes. Most of her belongings had yet to be packed. Her gaze fell upon the photo frame on the dresser of her with the Nordics during one of their trips, and she felt something akin to sadness begin to creep into her chest. True, she'd finally started feeling better about where her life may go in the near future, but she wasn't looking forward to leaving this house after all.

Sure, it would be fantastic to live with her best friends of around two years. It would be fun to share a large house with them. It was something she'd actually always wondered if they could do. And here, it would be like their own version of the BTT. Fun times all around, she was sure.

But the Nordics had become something more than friends since her arrival. It made her smile to think about how nervous she'd been when she first stayed here. Now, it felt like she belonged here somehow. She'd grown so accustomed to their habits and hobbies, the ways they interacted… like she'd been invited to be a part of something special and family-like. That was what she thought of, in the end. A bunch of brothers under the same roof. Even if they weren't technically related in that sense.

In the end, she knew why she didn't want to go. Staying here had brought back a sense of familiarity and family ties that she hadn't had in years. Even Reagan and Sam, while close friends, hadn't made her feel like she had family again, though Reagan's Grandmother had been a caring figure. Being here felt like she had somewhere she could return to. Somewhere she would have support and comfort and encouragement through anything, and protection. It was like having Paul in several different forms again. She didn't want to lose family a second time.

It hurt her to think that in just a few days, she was moving to another house, away from them and the memories she had made here. A rough start, perhaps, but she felt that if only she could stay, an even better future was hers for the taking. She only wished she had the courage to ask to live here with them. However, she'd already stayed here for a while now. She couldn't continue to intrude on their hospitality, no matter how much it felt like she wasn't a burden to them- she technically didn't live there. And besides, she had a job to do. It was unlikely anyone would approve of her living somewhere that wasn't near her country and work.

The girl knew the other reason why she didn't want to leave. It wasn't just Denmark's enthusiasm, Finland's kindness, Sweden's stoic but good nature or Iceland's general thoughtfulness that stuck with her. It was Norway's attentiveness that had grown ever since her breakdown a short time ago. Somehow, the one who had initially been the most mysterious to her had become one of the closest to her now. They're talked a decent amount recently. From the beginning when he'd protected her lie until necessary to do otherwise, and that crucial night when he'd pushed her over the edge so she could break and come back again. He'd saved her several times in different ways. She didn't think it was wise to admit this to herself, but she didn't see Norway as a brother at this point. To her, everyone else was a brother- Norway, well… at this point, it was a crush. But not the same butterfly-in-the-stomach crush normal people had. It was like she just felt calm when he was around, and like she could be safe with him. As a country, she doubted anything could come of it though, so for the most part she tried to ignore this fact and simply enjoy the time they spent together before her time was up. And she would try to always remember how it had felt when he'd hugged her and told her she was one of the strongest people he'd ever met.

Sighing, she looked out the window and contemplated for one moment if, in a perfect world, she would be able to ask to live here without sounding rude, and they would let her. To stay here surrounded by some of her favorite people she'd ever had the pleasure of knowing. Perhaps life had other plans for her here.

 _No use wondering about it… if there's a chance to bring it up at some point, I will, but I can't intrude on them and ask out of the blue. This is their home,_ she thought. She had somewhat hoped they would offer instead, but as time drew near, she had come to accept they might not offer at all. Denmark would have said something by now if they were contemplating it, knowing his impulsive behavior. She would just have to absorb her remaining days in this house.

True to her word, she did. She continued to open up and grow lively, getting into discussions with Finland in the living room or assisting Sweden around the house. She reminisced on the memories she'd made with Denmark and sometimes Norway when he was in the area. On her final night, they took her out to a nice dinner, where she had a bit of nostalgia to the nervousness she felt for her first dinner at their house. Afterwards they took a brief walk, mostly in silence, under the starry sky until they decided to return for the evening.

* * *

Finland was with her now as she finished putting her clothes into her suitcase. Tomorrow, he would be taking her to England's alone, where they would spend a night to gather a few things she'd left at his house months ago before coming back here for the rest of her things. Then, it would be off to her new house with her friends. The entire situation felt eerily bittersweet.

"Have everything?" he asked as he stood up.

"I think so," she said, surveying the room. In her head she checked off the last box and nodded to herself in confirmation. Her eyelids drooped, weary from the long day and the days that awaited her soon.

"Great! Well," he breathed, looking around for himself, "I guess… this is one of the last times this room will feel this way."

She looked at him curiously.

"It'll be different around here after… you know," he said, smiling a bit, though it seemed forced. She stared at him for a moment, contemplating on what she'd told herself earlier about subtly bringing up her desire to stay. But then something in her stopped. They'd done enough for her as it was. No use making things more difficult in saying such things. It would be a lot of work to have a new country move in with them, she was sure. They'd be down a guest room anyway.

"...Yeah," she finally murmured, offering him a forced smile of her own. "I guess it will."

"But it was a lot of fun!" he said perking up a bit. "It's not like we can't still get together sometimes."

"True," she laughed slightly.

He wished her goodnight and disappeared out the door.

Norway didn't come in that night. She wondered if he didn't want to have one last conversation in here the way they had been before her departure. Somehow the thought made her both happy and sad. Gradually she drifted off into a mostly blissful sleep.

They got to England's on time as planned. Corytha and Reagan instantly retreated to the bedroom where they'd first stayed when the spell had dragged them here from their world. Seated on the beds as they'd once done what seemed to be forever ago, they got caught up on the fun things that had happened since they last talked, going on for hours back and forth.

"I'm glad Norway talked me out of it," Corytha said with a sigh, closing her eyes. She'd just finished recapping her story of how the usually silent country had confronted her about her behavior and forced her to open up with her most vulnerable secrets, which ultimately saved her.

"I'm glad he did too," Reagan said with a laugh. "But mostly I'm just glad you're doing better!"

"I am too," the blonde beamed. "I still struggle every now and then, but I guess I am supposed to be healing, so… it might take a little while. But we'll get there."

"Definitely. And you have support every step of the way."

"Right."

Reagan glanced off to the side, and for a moment, Corytha saw something familiar in her friend's eyes.

"...Are you sad to be moving out of England's?" she asked in a soft voice. The strawberry blonde looked up, seeming surprised by the question. Then after a moment of contemplation her expression eased into acceptance.

"I'll admit, I didn't think leaving would be hard, especially since now it's not as if I won't see him again," she said with a small smile. "I guess when you've been somewhere a while it starts to feel… I don't know. Normal?"

"As normal as things get around here," Cori joked.

"Heh, yeah."

"Do you think Sam's having any problems?"

"I don't think so, she seemed really excited to have her own place! Not to mention she's getting a bit tired of Germany and Prussia's bickering lately. It was amusing for a while, but she told me a few days ago she nearly lashed out at them with a waffle iron…"

Corytha burst into laughter, wiping at the corners of her eyes. "A waffle iron? Why did she even have that?"

"I don't know!"

After a moment of shared amusement, they calmed down enough to register the silence spreading between them as they tried to think of new subject matter. But for Reagan, the next question was somewhat obvious.

"How are you feeling about leaving the Nordics?" she asked somewhat cautiously.

The blonde teen paused, letting the question sink in. It was the one she'd been dreading for days now herself. Biting her lip gently, she looked down to her hands in her lap and let her eyelids droop.

"...I'll miss them," she murmured. Sighing briefly, she looked back up. "I don't know how, but it's like… they don't just feel like friends anymore. They kind of felt like-"

"Family?"

She paused, then nodded. "I feel that same sense of… I don't know, belonging, when I'm there now. Only good things have happened while I was there, and… they supported me along with you guys no matter how lost I was. Norway even sat with me every night this past week, like he was checking in on me to make sure I was still doing okay."

"Aww, that's… that's awesome, Cori," Reagan said, her smile spreading wide. Corytha hadn't mentioned Norway's actions to anyone. She wouldn't tell Sam, lest the redhead begin to pester her about her potential feelings towards him.

"Yeah, he, um… I like him. A lot," Corytha laughed. "But I guess being countries it probably wouldn't be accepted or something weird, so… I'm not going to push my luck."

Another pause.

"...I just wish I didn't have to leave."

Reagan's eyes widened slightly. Her head tilted. "What, their house?"

Corytha turned her gaze to Reagan, sight guilt in her eyes. "Yeah… don't get me wrong, I would love to live with you and Sam! You know I practically dreamed of it back home, but… being with the Nordics… it's as you said, they're like family. And… it was nice to feel like I had that again."

Moments later, the girl felt a depression on the bed beside her and looked over as her friend placed a reassuring arm across her shoulders.

"I understand… I don't blame you, either. If I felt the way you did, I'm sure I'd want the same thing," she said. She was always so quick to understand and accept.

"Thanks… I even considered trying to bring it up somehow, but… they've already done so much for me," Corytha said, shaking her head a bit. "I couldn't intrude in their home anymore. Plus that was their only guest room."

Reagan laughed.

"Well, heaven forbid you steal the guest room!"

They continued to talk for a while until it was time to go to bed for the night. Sam ended up calling after they had just turned off the lights, so they talked for a bit longer past their normal schedules, resulting in some tired eyes the next morning.

Corytha gathered her new luggage by the front door of England's house about a quarter to one. It would be a short flight and then about two hours of driving until they got back to the house, where they would return in the evening for one last dinner. The next morning, they'd be off to the new house. Reagan had her things packed upstairs as well.

"Thanks for holding on to this stuff while I was away," Corytha told England that morning. "I appreciate it."

"Of course," he said with a polite smile.

"I'll see you soon Cori," Reagan said, giving her a hug.

"Yep!" she smiled back.

* * *

Finland helped her with her suitcase and led the way outside where a cab was waiting to take them to the airport. The drive was mostly silent, and though they talked a bit more on the flight back, by the time they were back in the car on their way to the house there seemed to be a tired atmosphere around the two. She couldn't tell where exactly it was coming from or when it had settled on their shoulders, but it loomed over them like an invisible veil. Trying to turn on the radio did nothing, so she turned that off, too. Finland seemed slightly out of sorts. Though it was obvious as to why, she wished things didn't have to be so strange today.

"Any exciting plans coming up?" she finally prompted, leaning with her elbow against the door on her side.

"Not really," he said, "Not for a while, anyway. For now it'll be the same as usual, for us."

"I'm sure Mathias will come up with something," she said with a grin.

"Yeah, probably," Finland laughed slightly.

Sensing the anticipation of his tone, she sat up and sighed through her nose.

"I really need to thank you guys for everything you've done for me… I don't think I've really expressed that enough, but… I really am grateful."

"We wouldn't have had it any other way," he said. She shook her head.

"But you guys did so much! You just… invited me here, practically a stranger, and you've already changed my life for the better. I don't know how you guys do it."

Grinning now, the Finnish man focused on the road ahead but cast glances towards her. "Just the way we are I guess! I'm glad we could be of some help."

" _Some_ help? You practically saved me!"

He laughed, and for a moment, they were back to the way things should have been. But the moment ended as soon as it came. He returned to his previously subdued mood.

"We're really going to miss you around here," he admitted.

She stared at him for a moment then looked out at the road stretching before them. She stared for a long time. Gradually she felt her need for him to cheer up slip away as she herself adopted his feelings. Feeling the tension loosen inside of her, she leaned back against her seat and looked down.

"...I wish I could stay…" she murmured.

He cast her a quick glance that she didn't notice before tilting his head a bit.

"We'll keep in touch. We can always hang out again soon," he reassured her, though in his mind, he knew that wouldn't be necessary. It was so hard keeping this role on! He wanted to be back home now to see her reaction. Hopefully things had flowed smoothly while they were away. It was luck enough that Denmark had managed to avoid revealing the surprise!

The rest of the drive went on in silence, and Corytha eventually turned on the radio again before turning her attention out the window to stare at things that went by.

When they returned, the house almost looked too calm from the outside. It did no justice to the lives that lived inside of it. She smiled to herself at the vague thought before forcing herself out of the car. It would be strange to walk in for the last time knowing she would stay the night there before leaving tomorrow.

They walked in through the front door only to find the living room deserted. Corytha's eyebrows furrowed as they stepped inside and Finland set her suitcase on the floor.

"Where is everyone?" she asked.

"Not sure, maybe they went down to the lake?"

"Maybe…"

After a moment, she glanced to the side and realized the other suitcase she'd brought down before was gone.

"Didn't I have a suitcase here too?" she pointed at the empty space.

"Hm… maybe someone took it back to your room for now? Sweden likes an organized space."

"I… guess?" she wasn't sure she bought that, considering Sweden was okay with things being slightly askew at times. Just not indefinitely.

"Why don't you take that suitcase upstairs in case you need to pack anything else? I think Denmark wanted to get you something before you left."

She snorted a bit but lifted her suitcase nonetheless, since her other bag was filled to the brim.

"Alright," she said, heading upstairs after taking off her shoes. This was a strange welcome home. She'd expected to see someone sitting on the couch, maybe Sweden reading his book- something, anything! Not emptiness. Not this late, especially. The sun was almost beyond the horizon. _Something's going on here,_ she thought as she approached her closed bedroom door.

* * *

She twisted the knob and pushed the door in before maneuvering the suitcase inside with her. Then she set it down and looked up. She dropped the handle and felt her hand slip off the door, eyes widening to their fullest extent as she took in the familiar yet altered world around her.

It was the guest bedroom, and yet it wasn't. The dark wood floors should have been her first hint. The bed had been replaced with something newer- silver sheets and soft pillows, and an inspirational quote like something out of a Gordman's store hanging on the wall behind it about chasing your dreams. A round and black furry rug laid on the floor beneath it. There was a desk beside the window now with what seemed to be a piece of paper and a laptop, as well as two journals stacked on one of the shelves. A cactus sat beside it on the windowsill. The dresser and closet were still where they had been, though they'd been altered to match the colors of the room with it's dark wood floors and teal walls. Her picture with the nordics had been moved to perch beside a flowering plant, and there was another picture of her with Reagan and Sam. A calendar was pinned on the wall beside the dresser.

On the other side of the room was a tall bookshelf with several books already lining the shelves with plenty of room for more. Her unpacked suitcase leaned in between the bookshelf and the wall. Then, a second desk with an overhead light, new canvases leaning against it and a set of colored pencils beside her sketchbook and pencils on top. Behind the desk, a large world map had been hung on a board with several tacks placed into it of places where she'd been. Yarn branched off from the tacks where photos of landmarks had then been linked. Finally, stars dotted the ceiling in a realistic display of the night sky as well as several constellations. She felt like she'd walked into a dream. Essentially, she had.

Whirling from confusion and joy and shock all at the same time, the girl- stunned to silence- felt tears pricking at her eyes. It was exactly the room she had drawn during the game from several weeks ago. Improved, even, and all right here before her. She stumbled over to the desk after a moment and realized the paper had writing on it. Heartbeat slowing, she sniffed and picked it up, trying to hold it steady in her shaking hands.

* * *

' _Cor-_

 _We hope this is the room you wanted! Took a little while to find everything, but we wanted to get it just right. Sweden insisted on picking out the furniture. Anyway:_

 _Cori, you're amazing. And not just because you manage to put up with all of us being in the same house. But you've been through a lot, and yet you still came out stronger than before. You're an inspiration, and if more people knew your story, they'd have the same thoughts that we do. Either way you're really kind and funny, and having you around here has been such a nice change of pace. But it's been more than that, too. After a little while you weren't just a guest. You were a friend, and it was a blast being able to take you around. It gets a bit boring when there's nothing new you can share anymore, because all of us know each other by now! Though, eventually you weren't just a friend, either._

 _You're like family., Cor. Like the sister none of us have had in a way. Having you around feels right, and it would feel out of place for you to leave now. Emil wouldn't have his walking buddy in the mornings, Timo wouldn't have someone who can try all his random ideas, Berwald wouldn't have his reading and coffee partner, and I wouldn't have someone who can put up with me to a seemingly impossible extent! And don't get me started on Lukas._

 _England and Germany have already okayed it if you decide you'd like to stay here with us, and we hope that this new and improved bedroom will be a big enough bribe to keep you around for a while…_

 _I hope this note finds you well. And always remember that even if we aren't related by blood, we'll always be around to pick you up if you fall. That's what family does!_

 _Sincerely,_

 _Mathias & Co._

 _P.S. I already unpacked your suitcase… so I really hope you'll be staying!''_

* * *

By the time she finished reading, tears were streaming down her face.

They'd done it. They'd really built this for her. They were really asking her to live here- and they'd called themselves her family, too. As a sob escaped her throat, she set the letter down and backed away from it slowly, unable to believe this was happening. Everything hurt, but for a different reason this time around.

She turned and rushed out of the room.

"Timo-!" she called as she gripped the railing of the banister. To her surprise, all of the Nordics were now in the living room, looking up at her from their usual spots.

"What is it?" Finland replied with a cheerful smile. Denmark was giving her a wicked grin. With her mind at a loss for words, she held her hands over her mouth and quickly turned to hurry downstairs. They stood to greet her, and before she could stop herself she was being twirled around in a hug by Denmark, who was laughing.

" _What do you mean a big enough bribe?"_ she sobbed, her voice muffled by his shirt as she clung to it like a lifeline. The Dane continued to laugh and held her in place, another hand on her hair. The rest of the group observed from the side, but she let go of Denmark and latched on to Finland next, followed by Sweden. She offered Iceland a handshake, but though he initially hesitated, he finally just smiled and shook his head before hugging her too. Lastly, she turned to Norway, who seemed to disregard her blush when he added his hug to the mix.

She felt like she was floating somewhere in between earth and heaven, as if reality had just turned on its head. She never would have imagined something like this happening: her dream bedroom, made for her by the same people she'd come to feel she belonged with, inviting her to stay here. Her thoughts had gone blank.

Tears still falling down her cheeks, she stepped back when Norway let go and turned to face all of them. They were all smiling.

"So are ya staying?" Denmark asked with his usual beaming expression. To her surprise, she actually started to laugh, wiping at her face with her sleeve.

"What do you think?" she replied, breathless. Denmark cheered in victory and started babbling about all the things they could do soon and getting her moved in completely. Finland was laughing while Sweden watched on from the side. As she stood there in astonished happiness, she felt something brush against her fingers. The girl hardly dared to breathe as Norway gripped her hand and gave it a light squeeze. She smiled and averted her gaze to the floor before closing her eyes.

She was where she belonged.

And she was here to stay.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you to anyone who read this story all the way through. This will likely be my one and only attempt with fanfiction as I move forward with my other hobbies, but Hetalia has always been the show that was with me through a lot of life changes, and I'm glad if there's any story I finished it was this one with my favorite group, the Nordics. The song I listened to that goes with this chapter is "I Believe" by Andru Donalds, I highly recommend it! And to anyone who is maybe going through a rough time too, know that things do get better. Sometimes it's hard to see it, and it can take some time, but I promise there are better things out there than any pain you may be experiencing. This pain only makes you who you are. Have a good day/night and I wish you all the best! ^-^


End file.
